Abstract:
Despite the government’s efforts to promote equal employment opportunities (EEOs) within the
public sector, the challenges still persist. This incompatibility between the government efforts and
the existence of inequality in employment hastened the study aimed to explore the challenges
facing EEOs among graduates within the public sector, with a specific focus on Dodoma City
Council.
The research utilized a qualitative approach guided by the saturation theory. Based on theory, 44
participants were obtained following sufficient and in-depth information which met the purposes of
the research. Qualitative data were analyzed manually using content analysis.
The policies and guidelines for the EEOs within the public sector were found to be partially
executed. The study further reported that lack of experience, an increased number of unemployed
graduates, skills mismatch, unfair judgement and corruption were the challenges for accessing
EEOs. The study also reported that the implementation of fairness and inclusivity in the
recruitment and selection processes was affected by the non-adherence and informal recruitment
procedures, favoritism and bias in the whole process of recruitment and selection process.
Considering the study findings, there should be a broad-based employment legislation that would
harmonize the Public Act 2022 and Employment and Labour Relations 2004 to enhance
transparency and accountability. This will lead to the implementation of required government
practices. Additionally, the graduates should not be assessed for application based on their work
experience. This is because, they do not have the required experience as they never worked
before. The problem of skills mismatch should be addressed by graduates themselves by learning
what is required in the market. Responsible authorities should strive for fair judgement and
corruption to give chances of EEOs for all applicants. Lastly, strict adherence to the formal
recruitment procedures by employers would lead to the implementation of fair and inclusive
recruitment and selection processes.
