The relevance of university music curricula to the requirements of music production job market in Kenya

Abstract

Music production is one of the job markets that has gained popularity around the world, including Kenya. Universities have come up with music production programmes in order to prepare bachelor of music learners for this viable music job market opportunity. However, it is the observation of many studies that universities are not preparing job-ready graduates. With the advance of the digital era that is seamlessly permeating every sector of the music job market, attention needs to be given to the music production programs in Kenya.  This study purposed to establish the relevance of university music curricula to the requirements of music production job markets in Kenya. Elliot’s (2005) praxial theory underpinned the study.  The results revealed that music production curriculum of university X did not meet most of the job market requirements while that of Y met most of the requirements. The Simple Matching Coefficient (SMC) of university X was 0.59 while that for university Y was 1.00. This finding revealed that the music production university music curricula could not be entirely termed as 'irrelevant', but it depended on individual universities. The recommendation was that university music schools should revise and restructure their music curricula to accurately reflect the music production job market in Kenya to compete favourably, locally and internationally.