YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATIONAL GOALS

Compiled By: Catherine Nampijja (Ugandan Student)

Four Facts for thought:

• 621 million young people aged 15-24 years old are not in education, employment or training.

• 75 million young people are trained but have no job.

• In the next decade, one billion young people will enter the labour market, and large numbers of young people face a future of irregular and informal employment.

• Youth are approximately three times more likely to be unemployed than adults

All countries ought to nurture a healthy and well educated workforce with the knowledge and skills needed for productive and fulfilling work especially among youths. However, young people face numerous challenges affecting their development and well-being. Among these is unemployment and the lack of decent work, which many countries have struggled unsuccessfully to address.

Despite the progress made in raising basic literacy rates, many countries have been unable to provide youths with the skills needed for the world of work. Imperfections in the labor market are on the rise due to mismatch between the company requirements and the skills offered to youths, who are often poorly prepared to face the transition from school to work.

For the few who are able to find a job, informal sector work and underemployment are common, while many others face prolonged periods of unemployment. During these extended periods without decent work, the skills young people acquired are eroding and declining in economic value.

Youth Employability

Employability is having the necessary skills to navigate through a career. Causes of youth un-employability are believed to be multifaceted, ranging from inadequate investment/supply side of jobs and insufficient employable skills.

Addressing this challenge requires a multipronged, long-term efforts involving multiple stakeholders, such as governments, employers, educational institutions, families as well as the youths themselves. There are five basic strategies that could be pursued:

• Boosting job creation and labour demand

• Better preparing young people for the job market

• Illuminating pathways to productive work

• Improving financial well-being, both current and long-term

• Fostering entrepreneurship

Our Role in Dealing with this Problem Involves:

1. Developing entrepreneurship among Youths

Young people need to embrace entrepreneurship and innovation to build job-creating businesses. This can be achieved through coaching, fostering networks and a culture of mentorship. Schools ought to establish Entrepreneurship Incubators working with local successful business people to establish a training methodology and help young people become more entrepreneurial.

2. Mandatory Career Education in Schools

Career education should be a mandatory credit in schools to help educators and employers develop experiential and workplace learning. Such will help youths grow their working future.

3. Developing Lifelong learning (Skills-building for future generations)

Many youths currently lack the skills required to prepare them for entering the labour market. To help kick start young people’s careers, there is need to focus on implementing short-term employment programs focused on career awareness and targeted at making young people more attractive to hiring firms. This implies that youths ought to start at an early age and focus on life skills alongside employability skills thus:

• Improving their planning skills, including improving the extent to which they think about the future, anticipate future consequences and plan before acting;

• Becoming more accepting of diversity and equitable gender roles;

• Improving their personal skills, including their self-confidence;

• Improving their financial skills in terms of savings and spending behavior; and

• Improving their entrepreneurial skills, gaining self-confidence in their entrepreneurial ability, and engaging in more entrepreneurial activities.

4. Increase youth exposure to jobs that are in demand, providing a better understanding of industry needs and embracing Apprenticeships.

This will increase the likelihood among young people thus identifying careers that suit their interests while making best use of their skills. This is possible exploring several careers before and during college through internships, apprenticeships, job shadowing, or classroom-based community projects.

5. Youths need to invest time in acquiring Industry-focused skills programs.

These are innovative practices that connect youths to employers at an earlier stage. This will sharpen the skills needed to be viable job candidates in the industry of their choice.

6. There is need for better alignment between workforce demands with college instruction.

Employers are key in communicating which skills are in demand and necessary for success in today’s workforce. This can develop a feedback mechanism for institutions to ensure improvement in instruction to youths in line with today’s job market.

There’s great need to develop national action plans targeting youth employment including establishment of enterprise incubation programs and infrastructure projects that hire and train young people. There is still an opportunity to change the staggering numbers of young people who leave college unsure of their next step.