INVESTING IN HIGHER EDUCATION OR STARTING A BUSINESS:What's the Best Future of Our Graduates?

With the ever growing trends in unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, some parents have begun to rethink about the future of their children after higher education. Trends in graduate employment in the last 20 years, especially in developing countries indicate that most graduates were able to secure direct employment after their college or university education. The current global labour market statistsics indicate that there is higher unemployment for youth graduates than those who missed the opportunity for higher education. Worse still, parents spend their last coin with sweat to facilitate for higher education of their children, to the contrary, graduates end up being unemployed and this is another burden for parents and guardians. What is the best decision on investing for the future of our children: Supporting children to start their own businesses after secondary school so as to create jobs for themselves and employ other youth or supporting children for higher education with risk of ending up unemployed graduates?

I had a meeting last week with a friend of mine in Dar es Salaam, and it happened that we shared some insights on the topic of creating the better future for our children. Surprisingly, we tried to analyze the cost of education and the price of starting a business for our youth. A friend of mine has three children enrolled in private secondary schools. He estimated the following costs of education if any of the children manage to reach university level:

2 years in kindergarthen= TZS 3,000,000/, 7 Years in Primary school (@2,500,000 per annum) TZS 20,000,000/, 4 years in Secondary School TZS 15,000,000/-, 2 years in High school TZS 8,000,000/-, 3 years in College/University ..approx. TZS 7,000,000/-. Thus, one child going from private kindergarthen to university will cost approximately TZS 53,000,000/=. Now, a friend of mine has 3 children in private secondary schools! I have one in private secondary school.

This article aims to help us to rethink on the best future for our children amid high youth unemployment. I don't suggest that we should stop educating our children,No! I am here to bring an insight on how we can spend wisely for our children. Possibly, we should focus on skills development rather than knowledge acquisition which is the aim of most higher education levels.

With high youth unemployment, I suggest we should promote youth entrepreneurship so as to encourage startup formation while our children are in college and this could be a stepping stone for most graduates after their college education. The KEY QUESTION REMAINS: Should you invest in higher education for your children or support them with starting their own business?

If you like the topic and would like to share your insights, please, share with us in the comments section below. Thank you