As a student, you may not be able to know which between Computer Science and Software Engineering is marketable in Kenya. According to statistics, more than 80 % of software engineering fresh graduates secure job opportunities less than 6 months to graduation. Based on the same survey, more than 40 % of computer science graduates wait for at least 1 year to secure employment. This scenario explains why software engineering is more popular than computer science.
In Kenya, computer science has several areas to specialize in; one can specialize in Computer engineering, computer programming, database systems, networking, management information system,robotics,or telecommunications engineering, but trends show that most students opt to specialize in hardware part, which is easier compared to software part. By doing so, they fail to capture the attention of employers, who are mostly interested in people with software and programming specialization. This is why thousands of computer science graduates are jobless in our country.
Software engineering is by far the best computer related course in the ountry.When enrolling for this course, you will realize that the bigger part involves programming. In four years, you will cover at least 75 % software engineering+programming and 25 % hardware. This balancing will be advantageous for you because the market lacks software engineers.
What is more exciting about software engineering is that very few graduates can write a script which can be used by multinationals like Facebook,Google,IBM and Safaricom.The few who have the skills required have been absorbed by these institutions.
Salaries
While computer science graduates can work as bank tellers,teachers,data analysts or IT officers, software engineers are given big titles,careers that pay up to Ksh 3 million per day.In Kenya, you won’t find a competent software engineer earning less than Ksh 200,000 but you can easily find a computer science teacher working as high school teacher with a monthly salary of Ksh 15,000.
To conclude, it’s wise to choose software engineering over computer science.
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