Background

The Government of Kenya has in the recent past undertaken a number of reforms in the higher education sector with a view to improving service delivery to all stakeholders. As Kenya battles youth unemployment and under-employment crisis, the Ministry of Education directed that universities and tertiary institutions to set up career offices to guide young people on career choices and job market demands (Handbook, 2018). The Office of Career Services (OCS) is designed to assist students in identifying potential careers, developing educational plans and providing students with accurate information about academic progression and degree requirements, thus assisting students with proper planning of their degree and career progress. Providing strategies and support to ensure that graduates are employable has become a major priority of universities. An emerging theme in the published graduate employability literature is that many students do not have a clear sense of career options and therefore can lack career goals. Though there have been reports that career compromise (e.g., acceptance into a degree program that was not first choice) increased career distress and decreased perceptions of employability, supportive strategies such as career guidance and increasing self-presentation skills can buffer these effects. Dedan Kimathi University of Technology has been keen on this through various programs under different departments but through DeKUT Office of Career Services, these efforts will be enhanced in order to assist our students build careers and succeed in them within and beyond their fields of study.