What is there for the youth?
Aug 13, 2011
Tomorrow is International Youth Day. The day is meant to recognise efforts of the youth in enhancing society. It also promotes ways to engage them in becoming more actively involved in making positive contributions to their communities.
Tomorrow is International Youth Day. The day is meant to recognise efforts of the youth in enhancing society. It also promotes ways to engage them in becoming more actively involved in making positive contributions to their communities.
The UN defines the youth as the age group between 15 and 24 years old, making up one-sixth of the human population. Many of them live in developing countries.
However, as this day is observed, youth are a major challenge to many governments currently. Critical challenges are in education and employment. Uganda, for example, has youth unemployment problem. Some research findings have attributed this to weak demand in labour markets, high population growth rates, low literacy rates, poor quality education and lack of employable skills.
High population growth rates need to be checked in order to protect the economy. Uganda’s annual population growth rate is projected at 3.5% per annum yet unemployment among the youth has been recorded at 83%. This is an indication of additional jobs that need to be created. This is worsened by the demographic structure where the combination of high population growth and low life expectancy implies that the population in Uganda is comparatively youth, with a high dependency ratio.
Uganda’s population dynamics and labour market conditions indicate that the youth comprise more than half of the total number of the unemployed and face peculiar dimensions of poverty. They need to be empowered with productive assets like land and capital, entrepreneurial and employable skills.
The education system needs to be restructured to produce the type of skills demanded in formal employment. The youth should be helped to change the perception that employment means a job with a wage or salary and working for somebody else. Therefore, the greatest gift to our youth should be improved relevance of the education and training system to help solve their unemployment problem.
The UN defines the youth as the age group between 15 and 24 years old, making up one-sixth of the human population. Many of them live in developing countries.
However, as this day is observed, youth are a major challenge to many governments currently. Critical challenges are in education and employment. Uganda, for example, has youth unemployment problem. Some research findings have attributed this to weak demand in labour markets, high population growth rates, low literacy rates, poor quality education and lack of employable skills.
High population growth rates need to be checked in order to protect the economy. Uganda’s annual population growth rate is projected at 3.5% per annum yet unemployment among the youth has been recorded at 83%. This is an indication of additional jobs that need to be created. This is worsened by the demographic structure where the combination of high population growth and low life expectancy implies that the population in Uganda is comparatively youth, with a high dependency ratio.
Uganda’s population dynamics and labour market conditions indicate that the youth comprise more than half of the total number of the unemployed and face peculiar dimensions of poverty. They need to be empowered with productive assets like land and capital, entrepreneurial and employable skills.
The education system needs to be restructured to produce the type of skills demanded in formal employment. The youth should be helped to change the perception that employment means a job with a wage or salary and working for somebody else. Therefore, the greatest gift to our youth should be improved relevance of the education and training system to help solve their unemployment problem.