Academicians have raised their concern over what they described as 'poor performance in the field' of graduates from technical colleges.

Technical education experts last week cited the Arusha Technical College (ATC) where they said the performance of students in the field contradicted their classroom results.

"We are now undertaking curriculum review to ensure that our graduates were technically skilled to meet the market demands", said a senior official of the college Mr. Urbanus F. Melkior during consultative talks with representatives of PUM organization from the Netherlands.

He said although industrial practical training was key to technical and vocational education training, there was no sustainable funding in place.

He added that it was a high time technical training institutions prepared their students for self employment rather than seeking dwindling job vacancies in the formal sectors.

The college principal Dr. Richard Masika said technical colleges must strengthen linkages with industries because the latter were "one step ahead due to the use of modern technology".

He showered praise on PUM, the Netherlands organization which has been supporting the college over the years but added that ATC was not getting much assistance from the firms in the telecommunications and electronics sector.

"We will have to reach out the heads of these firms ", he said, adding that the college would improve its consultancy unit and that funds collected would be used to support students in practical training.

ATC has introduced new courses since it was upgraded into an autonomous institution under the ministry of Education and Vocational Training in 2007. The most conspicuous is a degree course in civil and irrigation engineering which came on board in 2010.

Of late new Diploma courses have been added and include Jewelry and Lapidary Technology, Electrical and Biomedical Engineering and Gas Distribution and Transmission Engineering.

Others are Heavy Duty Equipment Technology, Renewable Energy Technology, Metallurgy Technology and Architectural Studies.