Tertiary Level Entrepreneurship Training and Alleviation of Educated Youth Un- and Underemployment in Uganda

Despite being educated and more so in entrepreneurship skills development, many tertiary institution graduates in Uganda are jobless. Considering that entrepreneurship training stresses on self-employment and job creation, its effectiveness is thus questionable. This study sought to establish the contribution of tertiary level entrepreneurship training in addressing un- and underemployment problems over a period of 8 years (2009-2016). A descriptive study design was adopted. Descriptive analysis of secondary data collected from credible databases, the main one being the Uganda Bureau of Statistics was carried out. It was established that unemployment in Uganda is on an increase; the employment problems were experienced in terms of gender and by residence – urban or rural; time related underemployment was more prominent than the skills and income related forms of unemployment; of the 18 entrepreneurship programmes accredited, 61.1% were at bachelor’s degree level; 33.3% at diploma level; 5.6% at postgraduate level but none at Masters’ and PhD levels. Contrary to the expectations, entrepreneurship training does not seem to translate into employment either by self or other. It was concluded that educated youth un-and underemployment are on the rise in Uganda; that the problems are worse in the urban than rural settings; and that entrepreneurship training has failed to alleviate the employment problems. It was recommended that more technical entrepreneurial training be introduced to spur self-employment, and that, internship and volunteer programmes be introduced under the Public-Private-Partnership arrangement to shape the skills and attitude of the youth