Africa-Press – Botswana. The bulging population of young people who are unemployed despite having completed school or university has challenged entities to devise strategies’ that can remedy the situation.
UNICEF country representative to Botswana and SADC Dr Joan Matji told participants during the youth employability training in Serowe on Monday that about 40 per cent of young people in Botswana were unemployed a situation that has left some disgruntled and unsettled.
She said the status quo has challenged stakeholders to come up with a youth friendly programme called Generation Unlimited which would address youth unemployment by matching labour demand to supply.
She said the programme also aimed at increasing available work opportunities for young people and improving their connections to existing and opportunities.
Dr Matji said UNICEF, Ministry of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development, Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Botswana Innovation Hub and ABSA Botswana have combined resources to facilitate the employability and skills training as part of the roll out of the Generation Unlimited programme.
“Expectation is that at the end of the two day training, young people should be equipped with work ready skills, received career guidance and be able to access job matching services to connect to available opportunities,” she said.
She added that the training was also supposed to empower young people to be entrepreneurs in their own right.
The day was coupled with presentations about professional image, creating employment through sustainable entrepreneurship as well as review of sample application documents.
At the end of the proceedings eligible participants were assisted with registering on the Botswana Labour Market Observatory website.
The training attracted over 200 young people aged 16 to 28 from Serowe and surrounding areas and is expected to be roll out to Francistown, Kang, Tsabong, Ghanzi, Mahalapye, Maun, Kasane and Selebi-Phikwe.
For their part, participants shared challenges that made it difficult for them to secure employment and starting their own businesses.
They also raised concerns about the lack of thorough career guidance for young people to make informed decisions on their career paths, adding that some end up choosing wrong courses for the sake of going to tertiary.
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