Africa-Press – Uganda. By Ritah Elit
Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world, with 78 per cent under the age of 30, representing significant development potential. But if left untapped, it could pose a huge challenge to national development. This huge youth population has potential to lift the country out of poverty, but this can only happen if they are employed.
There is no scarcity of initiatives to address youth unemployment in Uganda. Government has introduced diverse initiatives such as Youth Livelihood Programme under Ministry of Gender to empower the young population to create jobs and eradicate poverty. There are others such as ‘Emyooga’ initiative, all aimed at skilling the youth with practical knowledge to address unemployment. However, these initiatives have not been sufficient to address the high unemployment rates in the country. Despite the job creation efforts by government, youth unemployment has hardly diminished.
It’s time to reassess these initiatives to see why they are not delivering the desired results and, therefore, make adjustments or try a new and different strategy. To create jobs the youth need sufficient vocational skills of international standard. This can help them easily find jobs locally and also compete for employment else where globally.Currently this is lacking in the local population. For too long, vocational educational has been viewed as the option for those who attained poor grades in national examinations and could not qualify for university admission.
Vocational training institutions have been underfunded, poorly equipped and struggle to stay afloat. In such circumstances, they cannot deliver graduates of quality skills. Some vocational schools/institutions have defied the odds and remained outstanding centres of vocational skilling. But they still need more support for adequate infrastructure and scholastic materials.
We should focus on advancement of science, technology and innovations to enhance entrepreneurship, productivity, manufacturing, and processing. These are the kind of programmes that government should focus on in our vocational institutes countrywide to support industrious individuals or groups of individuals to develop a formidable national entrepreneurial class. Government should move away from programmes that focus on giving the youth cash support to help them start businesses. It won’t work. They cannot manage the businesses because they lack the skills.
The youth need skills in courses in general technology and science such as mechanics, civil, electrical engineering, applied chemistry, software engineering etc to acquire skills in producing products that apply to every day life such as textile, agroprocessing, tailoring and cosmetology, among others. There is a wide range of beauty treatments the youth can specialise in and there are plenty of career choices for qualified cosmetologists: barbers, hair colour and skin care specialists etc.
Graduates of these courses can hardly remain unemployed for long after school. Many are retained in these vocational institutions after their internships. With a little capital, they can even start their own businesses given that they already have the requisite skills. Let’s empower youths with skills, not cash assistance.
