UN calls for intensified efforts towards youth employability

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UN calls for intensified efforts towards youth employability
UN calls for intensified efforts towards youth employability

Africa-PressLesotho. Yearly on July 15th, the world commemorates World Youth Skills Day which was declared in 2014 during the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to draw attention to the opportunities and challenges faced by young people globally in

terms of employment. The 2021’s World Youth Skills Day was carried out under difficult circumstances, amidst crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus the theme is: “Reimagining Youth Skills Post-Pandemic”,

which will pay tribute to the resilience and creativity of youth. One of the main focus areas for World Youth Skills Day is to equip young people around the

world with essential skills for employment, work and entrepreneurship skills. Among the organisations that have taken a stand to walk in line with this mandate,

Relationships Inspiring Social Enterprise (rise) International is actively creating platforms that expose African youth to opportunities and resources

that they need to become job creators instead of job seekers. “Four years ago we developed a program called in loco; a “learning by doing” fellowship program in Lesotho striving to create an entrepreneurial

mind-set amongst the youth in the Built Environment sector. Through this program, 98% of our alumni are self-employed or in full time employment and collectively continue to create jobs for other Basotho youth.

They continue to empower young minds while thriving in a pandemic ridden world,” rise International noted on their statement released in honour of the World Youth

Skills Day. The organisation has to this point created skilful alumni, some of which have started their own businesses. The XYZ Collaborative is one of the milestones

under rise International’s up skilling initiatives, which is a team made up of ten 2019 in loco pioneers. “Together, they joined hands in starting this company because of their love for teamwork,

a culture instilled in them by the in loco program,” the statement furthered and noted that, “Nearly 40% of Lesotho’s population is made up of youth aged 15 to 30 and over 30% of them are unemployed.

We are filling this gap by building the very first Enterprise Hub in Lesotho which will support business incubation for young entrepreneurs through skills sharing,

business training and much more. And the amazing thing is you can get involved too. While in great search for sponsors and architects to support this project,

we are relying on YOU to help us help our youth. ” Multiplex Industries in Lesotho has also recognised the importance of preparing young people for employment.

It has organised a sales training for 20 Basotho youth, thereby imparting knowledge on how they can perform best in the corporate world. Multiplex Industries Managing Director Tholang Mosisili highlighted that the aim of the

training was to address the peaking unemployment in Lesotho especially for the youth, to inspire other upcoming youth businesses and Small, Micro and Medium

Enterprises (SMMEs) to act upon and support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations (UN) thus assisting the government of Lesotho to

win the fight against unemployment. He added that due to the Covid-19 enforced struggles which also increases the already high unemployment rate, the idea was for youth to exercise their

knowledge as they navigate the post-graduation era, saying it is the stage where most youth get stuck, resulting to others resorting to illegal and dangerous habits.

“Youth have to part take in eradication of unemployment as the deep rooted problem world-wide,” said Mosisili. Meanwhile,

the Ministry of Gender, Youth, Sports and Recreation Director Lipalesa Lesenyeho, in a consultation interview with Informative Newspaper, stated that the government has developed Vocational

Training Centres that help youth with vocational skills to create jobs for themselves. “Working does not only mean that one has to be hired but it can be

through entrepreneurship. We capacitate the youth with vocational skills that will enable them to create small businesses and create employment for other youth,” she noted.

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