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Davis Sibanda Labour Matters
The majority of Zimbabwe University Human Resources degree programmes are not adequately equipping students with human resources skills thus many employers demand a human resources degree plus a diploma in human resources management, labour relations or labour law.

This situation makes many of our university graduates unemployable as human resources practitioners resulting in many graduates taking up clerical positions or jobs that are not related to their training.

While it is a good thing that several of our local universities offer degrees in human resources management, it would seem that there was no consultation with the consumers of services provided by the graduates or if any it was at superficial level.

The general expectation is that a degree is an add on to a diploma. While it might be argued that degrees are academic and diplomas are professional qualifications the fact remains that our IPMZ Higher Diploma holder is more solid at work than any local human resources degree holder.

Going into the human resources degree syllabi offered by most universities focus is on the administrative side of human resources with very little coverage of the operations issues. For example after the Marikana incident in South Africa, it became evident that human resources practitioners without full grasp of labour relations and labour law are a liability. Our universities unfortunately do not cover these areas in detail, for example, dispute resolution, a major component of human resources management is not covered in detail. In respected universities it is a one year course where students cover dispute resolution legislation, dispute resolution procedures and related case law. Presently our graduates have to go to University of Zimbabwe for an additional year to study for the Post Graduate Diploma in Alternative Dispute Resolution.

On labour relations graduates struggle to define a workers committee, a works council, NEC and trade union from a legal and operations perspective. They, in many instances cannot even cite the relevant founding legislation. It therefore becomes the employer’s job to fund such learning. I am of the view that if labour relations was covered in detail over at least a year, focusing on theory application and cases, students would be better equipped to function in organisations.

The same problems relate to many graduates’ understanding of the three major areas of labour law, that is individual employment law, collective labour law and dispute resolution. If covered, it is not in detail resulting in pushing into the market graduates who cannot craft a contract of employment, cannot handle a works council meeting, cannot write works council meeting minutes, cannot make Labour Court applications, appeals or stay of execution and others. To me these are basic skills that students should acquire at university and the workplace should provide a window to experience. It seems the one year industrial attachment while it helps students acclimatise to the world of work there is limited learning on technical aspects of the job.

In conclusion, it is hoped our universities will review syllabi to take into account employer’s concerns for human resources graduates to add value. What universities need to recognise is that modern employers are not interested in degrees but delivery and have thorough screening tools to allow them to get the best candidate degreed or no degree.

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: E: [email protected] C: 0772 375 235