What next for our graduates in disguised unemployment?

We argued that, accordingly and as one would commonly be expected to think, the country should do the most it could to have big enough numbers of the right personnel or expertise to serve the industry and more generally to satisfaction.

We did so only days after the state-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) announced that it would likely be confirmed that the country had massive reserves of crude oil, what with the completion of the first stage of a survey in Lake Tanganyika waters.

TPDC officials had been quoted as reporting that neighbouring Uganda had already discovered oil in the Lake Albert belt – and the environment there was much similar to that of Lake Tanganyika, a segment of which is part of Tanzanian territory.

The officials were hugely optimistic, noting that they saw every indication of striking oil in the latter lake because several previous surveys had pointed to the rich presence of rocks with huge potential for oil production.

Soon thereafter, Dar es Salaam hosted a workshop meant to acquaint a wide range of professionals on how the oil industry operates. It attracted a sizeable number of government officials from various sectors.

A resource person, a geologist, cautioned workshop participants that interference by politicians in the industry would prove disruptive by scaring away some firms intending or planning to invest in the country.

He said that, if he had his way, experts would be left to operate only as the principles of their profession dictated.

We may find it extremely hard to exclude the oil industry from politics, but that would not rule out the fact that the country would need to exercise maximum care before actually going into oil exploitation in earnest.

Many experts argue that human resources are by far the most important factor of production, the advancement of which must be among the major items on the nation’s development agenda particularly as relates to the oil and gas industry.

They say that whenever and wherever there are significant discoveries of oil and natural gas reserves, and indeed the existence of any other natural resources, there is immense demand for a strong local workforce – experts and non-experts.

It is unfortunate that many job seekers seldom have the education, training, skills and experience directly related to the employment opportunities on offer.

To illustrate this just a bit: the oil and gas sector would need experienced riggers, drillers, seismic crew, logistics coordinators, clearing and forwarding agents as well as hospitality industry personnel.

Globally, oil and gas companies are very strict with regard to health and safety considerations and one of the disqualifications for anyone they would contemplate engaging is non-compliance with health and safety requirements.

There is also the issue of problems with communication skills – unfortunately, in our case, often particularly with respect to proficiency in English. Poor command of the language has on numerous occasions proved the undoing of many otherwise excellent Tanzanians when they face job interviewing panels.

We may fault the idea, but in cases where a company may wish to send candidates to study specific trades, often this may not be possible unless one is comfortable with the language.

Too bad, sound knowledge of English is usually decisive even for common-cadre positions like housekeeping – not to mention managerial ones.

There are doubtless big numbers of Tanzanians with the requisite qualifications, and these should get first-line consideration whenever there are vacancies – with expatriates considered only as a last resort and in full compliance of the laws of the land.

It is therefore of fundamental importance for the nation, the government in particular, to train more Tanzanian nationals as a way of ensuring that as many of our own people as possible assume strategic positions in the emerging oil and gas industry and all other sectors.

Even more importantly, though, every effort should be made to minimise the possibility of the local experts we end up with “lying fallow” or ending up in disguised unemployment upon completing their expensive training just because the economy cannot absorb them. And this should not apply only to the oil and gas industry.

It is common knowledge that the country already has thousands upon thousands of all manner of college and university graduates for whom years of hunting for salaried jobs have proved a wild goose chase.

This is a tricky, complex and even tragic situation which the nation ought to address with as much speed and seriousness as it can if things are not to degenerate into a crisis of crippling proportions.

We need to train the present generation – and posterity – more and more for a purpose. This would presuppose that we will take an especially critical look at the kind of education and training we offer or we expect from the local experts we would appreciate making available for the nation’s present and future use.