Graduates’ Digital Literacy and Employability in Tanzania: A Review of Required Competencies

Abstract

This study comprehensively reviewed the literature on the essential digital literacy skills required for graduates to enhance their employability in today's Tanzania labour market. The researcher obtained the articles from five academic databases. Snowballing was employed across the existing articles to find peer reviewed articles published in the last ten years. The key results indicate that there is a range of multi-layered digital competencies required by graduates who enter into their careers, including information literacy, communication, and collaboration literacy, media literacy, technical literacy, office productivity software proficiency as well as web application awareness such as social media platforms knowledge and also familiarity with data analysis tools. Furthermore, critical thinking should be fostered alongside problem-solving capabilities within digital environments - these are regarded as essential, where learners have to think critically while solving problems through technology-mediated learning. The review further established that most employers expect candidates with knowledge in these areas, but unfortunately, many graduates lack such knowledge; hence, this calls for curriculum changes to equip them appropriately for continuous learning towards skill building, making them more marketable than before. Joint efforts between different actors are vital to improve graduates’ digital capabilities, thereby creating a friendly employability environment.