Unemployment: Change mindset of the youth
Apr 21, 2010
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has said the provision of entrepreneurial and business skills to the youth will solve the problem of unemployment. The President was addressing the youth at the closure of a workshop in Kamuli district.
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has said the provision of entrepreneurial and business skills to the youth will solve the problem of unemployment. The President was addressing the youth at the closure of a workshop in Kamuli district.
There is no doubt that unemployed youth are not only idle, but also a source of insecurity. An audit of recent events bears testimony to that scenario.
The Government deserves credit for her decision to revamp cooperative societies in the form of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs). This is one of the Government’s strategies to address economic and social standards of the citizens where the youth form the bulk of the population.
If the youth can be strategic and make the best of SACCOs, they will be on the way to self-sustenance. Many people have benefited from soft loans and have been relatively successful.
However, the youth have a hurdle to clear. No financial institution, however well-meaning, can offer a loan without security.
This means that the youth who belong to extremely poor families will not be able to access the SACCO loans to start small businesses since they lack collateral.
It also means that equipping the youth with entrepreneurial and business skills will come to nothing without initial capital. Perhaps the Government should consider establishing a special loan scheme particularly for the graduate youth who are being churned out from Uganda’s universities in large numbers, to enable them start out on their own. There is also an urgent need to change, through sensitisation in schools, the mindset of the youth.
The days of white collar jobs are no more and where they are available, they are most frustrating because of poor pay and conditions of service. The Government needs to focus on vocational training because it is a short-cut to job creation and self-employment.
A stampede for university education which eventually leads to frustration is not the best way of addressing the unemployment problem.
There is no doubt that unemployed youth are not only idle, but also a source of insecurity. An audit of recent events bears testimony to that scenario.
The Government deserves credit for her decision to revamp cooperative societies in the form of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs). This is one of the Government’s strategies to address economic and social standards of the citizens where the youth form the bulk of the population.
If the youth can be strategic and make the best of SACCOs, they will be on the way to self-sustenance. Many people have benefited from soft loans and have been relatively successful.
However, the youth have a hurdle to clear. No financial institution, however well-meaning, can offer a loan without security.
This means that the youth who belong to extremely poor families will not be able to access the SACCO loans to start small businesses since they lack collateral.
It also means that equipping the youth with entrepreneurial and business skills will come to nothing without initial capital. Perhaps the Government should consider establishing a special loan scheme particularly for the graduate youth who are being churned out from Uganda’s universities in large numbers, to enable them start out on their own. There is also an urgent need to change, through sensitisation in schools, the mindset of the youth.
The days of white collar jobs are no more and where they are available, they are most frustrating because of poor pay and conditions of service. The Government needs to focus on vocational training because it is a short-cut to job creation and self-employment.
A stampede for university education which eventually leads to frustration is not the best way of addressing the unemployment problem.