Statement by the Ag. Chancellor, Amb. Dr Hukka Wario on the occasion of the 45th Graduation, Egerton University on 29th July 2022

Our Chief Guest, the Honourable Cabinet Secretary for Education, Science and Technology, Professor George Magoha

Principal Secretary, State Department for University Education and Research, Ambassador Simon Nabukwesi

Members of the Egerton University Council

The Vice Chancellor, Egerton University, Prof. Isaac Kibwage

Deputy Vice Chancellors of Egerton University, Members of the University Management Board

Members of the Egerton University Senate, Deans of Faculties and Directors of Institutes, Chairs and Heads of Departments

All members of the teaching and non-teaching staff, Members of the Egerton Alumni

Graduands, continuing students

Parents and guardians

Invited guests who have honoured Egerton University by coming and being with us today,

Friends of Egerton University

We are assembled here together once again to celebrate yet another happy day- a graduation of 2,322 candidates, leaving the doors of Egerton University to go into the world of work, either employed or self-employed.

Warm congratulations to you graduands and to your lecturers and professors, administrators, sponsors, and parents and all who have contributed to our celebrating this momentous occasion.

Today, I would like you to reflect on skills. What is a skill? It is a particular ability to do something well. Your pursuit of a diploma or a degree helps you acquire certain skills. I am speaking to people who are armed with skills in human medicine, in law, in veterinary medicine and animal health, in plant breeding and plant protection, in dairy technology, in food science, horticulture and agribusiness and soil science. There are those of you skilled in the arts- in economics, philosophy, sociology, literature, languages and communication. There are among you today, those skilled in military science, international relations and the totality of the human experience as recorded in history.

There are those of you in this congregation who have deepened and upscaled their skills to Masters and PhD degree levels, in areas such as plant breeding, food science, animal science and crop protection. Yes, you have. Special congratulations to you.

The world of work into which you are going is in a constant state of change. This may be brought about by new knowledge or new technologies, or phenomena such as climate change. At the workplace we must learn to adapt to change if we are to keep our jobs.

If you must adapt to change, then you will need more than one skill. Two is almost always better than one. Is that probably why we are endowed with two eyes, two ears, to nostrils, two hands, two legs? Is that why we are endowed with multiple teeth, fingers, toes and hair that we cannot count?

I would like you to pick on the word multiple, and reduced it to its first part, multi- so that we can talk about multi-skilling or having multiple skills.

A multi-skilled person can do multiple tasks. In the traditional set up I grew up in the North of Kenya, I know of a traditional human doctor who is also a veterinary doctor. He is multi-skilled.

The trend in the job market sometimes goes against multi-skilling. A medical student would specialize after the first degree in one of the many branches of medicine- Paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, dentistry and cardiology, urology, pathology, ophthalmology.

After a BSc in Agriculture, you may want to specialize in livestock or crop production, agricultural economics, agri-business, agricultural engineering or Dairy Technology.

But today, increasingly you need two or more skills in these specializations. The job market sometimes needs not specialists but a workforce that has multiple skills that for examples combines livestock and crop production, agri-business and agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, and dairy technology, or even go on to combine three or four of these specialities.

Career development needs multi-skilling and continuous, lifelong learning, which also embraces a culture of research and innovation.

Covid 19 has changed how people work. Working from home during the pandemic has now created hybrid work. This is where staff split work between reporting to work in person and remotely working from home or elsewhere. In this situation new skills, especially in the use of the computer and effective online communication with other co-workers are required. This has internationalized the workforce. One can work from Kenya or anywhere in the world for a company located elsewhere around the globe.

Why is it necessary to have more than one skill or be multi-skilled?

Multi-skilling helps you change jobs; it opens up new avenues and opportunities for employment in and outside your country; it leads to skills diversification; it helps you survive any retrenchment or job loss; multi-skilling bolsters and sustains your enthusiasm, curiosity and motivates you to learn new skills.

If you have several skills, you can stand in for an absent workmate; you can move up or down the workforce set-up and work comfortably; you become more flexible in taking up any new assignment; you are in a better position to foresee and forestall problems or challenges; you become more creative and more innovative; you develop a positive attitude and mindset… If you are asked whether you can do a certain new task, you are expected to say ‘yes, let me try, I think I can do it.’ You increase your chances of being employed again there or elsewhere in case of a job loss or retrenchment due to maybe an economic downturn. Multi-skilling prepares you to cope with changes in technology or processes. Multi-skilling helps you identify your aptitude and what you are good at and what you enjoy doing. it helps you discover your talents.

How do you become multi-skilled? You can gain new skills by listening attentively to what others say- your lecturers, your peers, your parents, your siblings, the media.

Today, in the internet of things, what can’t you learn? Knowledge is there, all around you for the asking, at the click of a mouse, at the typing on a computer keyboard, you can even ask your phone a question and you get an instant answer? Google maps take you safely to places that you have never visited. You can sit at home and do a course online. You can watch a video clip on YouTube on how something is done. The skills are there for you to choose and pick. How things have been made easy!

You can acquire new skills simply by observing what others do. A keen sense of observation is a very useful asset here.

All skills are best learnt by doing. Try your hand at it. You cant acquire swimming skills just by observing others swim. You must take the dip and try to float and to move and avoid taking in too much pool water into your stomach. You become a good swimmer by practice. The same is true of specialised skills such as surgery, or flying a plane or fly into space. You may work as an intern, or a temp (temporary) worker, or a volunteer or be mentored or coached or taught or trained, but by all means, go for new skills. Multi-skill.

I have worked in a country where staff, including university staff- even professors- work on annual contracts. Not on a permanent and a pensionable basis. Every year, for your contract to be renewed you must show cause why it should be renewed. They will ask what new skills you have acquired during the year that had just ended.

The idea is learn as you work and work as you learn, and increase your skills by doing new tasks all the time. It all boils down to KAIZEN, the motto of the Japanese Toyota Motor Company, which means continuous self-improvement. And you can do that through multi-skilling.

Finally, as you leave through the gates of Egerton University, go to serve the community and the nation. Give back to the country that has educated you. Offer your skills, your multiple skills, and improve the quality of life of citizens with your knowledge. I would like to request you to register as alumni of Egerton University, keep in touch with your Alma Mater and support those who will come to Egerton after you. Goodbye and may God bless you.

Tweets by the Ag. Chancellor, Amb. Dr Hukka Wario on the occasion of the 45^th Graduation, Egerton University on 29^th July 2022

#45thEgertonGraduation

Today, we are assembled here together once again to celebrate yet another happy day-a graduation of 2,322 candidates.