UCU, HR managers’ body sign deal to build students’ competence for job market

The Human Resource Managers Association Uganda (HRMAU) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Uganda Christian University (UCU) for a collaborative strategy to improve the quality of graduates in the field of human resource in the country.

The partnership was signed by Ronald Bbosa the President HRMAU on behalf of the association and Prof. John Mulindwa Kitayimbwa the Deputy Vice Chancellor at UCU on behalf of the Vice Chancellor.

Speaking during the event held at the university, the HRMAU president noted that the two institutions are coming together to join forces that will drive towards a profound impact on the training, mentorship and coaching as well as career management of students and graduates of human resource management and related courses within the university.

“Being here is part of our wider outreach campaign. This partnership is aimed at orienting students into what it is like in the world of work, this will foster interaction between the community of practice of HR professionals and those who enable the students to learn about HR and about other disciplines,” Bbosa said.

He noted that the partnership is part of the extension of graduates into employment and create an easy entry into internship by the students who would have become members of the association.

“This will steer progress in terms of knowledge. We will support the university and other stakeholders to make sure that we have cutting edge research reports that address the kind of challenges that we have as practioners.”

“The structure of Uganda’s education is bureaucratic that it rewards people who know right answers but after you have completed university the world out there rewards people who know how to ask the right questions,” he added.

The HRMAU president observed that the gaps shall be addressed through cocreating content by giving input on curriculum in the specific areas to make sure that the students are ready for work.

The UCU Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mulindwa appreciated HRMAU for the partnership noting that it’s a gate way to the opportunity of causing a change within the human resource sector in the country.

“The exposure that students have with experts during internship is just an event, upon graduation, when we send them out, we are told that they are raw with no requisite skills. This partnership looks at having students attached to a human resource expert from the onset of their studies so that by the time we send them out they are not raw but ready for the challenges in the employment world,” Prof. Mulindwa said.

He challenged the association to move very quickly to design a training program that is going to change the training of human resource in this country forever.

The  HRMAU vice president, Shamim Walusimbi  noted that the collaboration will form a great basis of cooperation in the field of research with a purpose of advancing human resource knowledge base as well as practices in Uganda and globally.

“The highlighted activities will enrich the participants with better knowledge, skills and empowerment that will enable them to have a greater impact on the society and in the end contribute to the development of Uganda’s human capital. The partnership between HRMAU and Uganda Christian University will provide targeted awareness and support of activities aimed at achieving the highlighted key objectives,” Walusimbi said.

According to Stellah Mbekeka ,a committee member of the HRMAU governing council,  the partnership is the beginning of a bigger campaign in which  the association shall reach out to many more other students in other universities to make sure that when they leave university, they are well oriented.

“We have already identified a pool of HR professionals who are very experienced in different areas depending on the field of interest; we have already profiled our members and we know who to attach to who based on the student’s career path,” Mbekeka highlighted.