Challenges of Career Development in Zanzibar Public Sectors: A Case of Zanzibar State Trading Corporation, Pemba.

The study assessed challenges facing career development in Zanzibar public sector with ZSTC, as the case study. The general objective of the study was to assess challenges facing employees career development in Public in public sector Zanzibar, the case of The Zanzibar State Trading Corporation (ZSTC) in Pemba Island. The study was guided by the following specific objectives; ddetermine the manager’s career counselling role on employee career development in ZSTC in Pemba; ddetermine organizational succession planning on employee career development ZSTC in Pemba; and ddetermine employee career planning on employee career development ZSTC in Pemba. The study used mixed research approach to foster greater validity through triangulation and making inferences. The study found out that, career counseling is practiced to the minor extent such that employees take initiative to develop themselves without significant support from their supervisors. For the case of organization succession planning, the study found out that, succession planning was not well practiced in Zanzibar public sector while promotion was not systematically done and in some occasion was determined minor merits approach such as political affiliation and relation with employee. In case of employee career planning, employee had no career plan and mainly, their career path depended on the existing career development opportunities rather than striving to achieve established career goal. The study recommends integration of succession planning, career planning and career counseling in Zanzibar pubic sector, should include integration of human resources policy implementation through training, coaching, mentoring and other career support programmes. Keywords: Career, Career Path, Career Management, Career Planning