National youth internship and service program will increase employability

By Evelyn Angiji

Last week, the Kampala Capital City Authority, KCCA launched the I-serve programme in a bid to promote youth internship and service programme.

This programme will see young people placed in the KCCA structures as volunteers. So far, 60 youths are benefiting from this initiative and recruitment of the second cohort is underway. Olivia Nanyange is one of the beneficiaries and she says that after joining this program, her professional life will never be the same.

Nanyange graduated in 2013 with a Bachelors Degree in Social Works and Social Administration but she is different from several university fresh graduates who lack employability skills. Nanyange has been in the I-Serve program for two months and since then, she has gained skills which place her at a higher advantage in the job market compared to other graduates.

Nanyange says that by the time she completes her six months experience with the I-Serve program, she will be ready for formal employment because she has skills in report and work plan writing, monitoring and evaluation and performance improvement.

This intervention geared towards providing practical solutions to increase youth employability and promote patriotism through Internship, Volunteerism and Service is in the right direction and it is very encouraging to know that a few organizations including KCCA, the Uganda Investment Authority and Restless Uganda among others have instituted policies to ensure the smooth running and sustainability of such programs. 

But what if all government institutions, entities and private organizations implemented and promoted such programs, what impact could we make in the fight against youth unemployment in the country?.

It is against this background that as a Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs we propose the establishment of a National Youth Service and Internship Program. This can be made possible if Parliament institutes a legal frame work which establishes the National Youth Service and Internship Program. This process is already underway and the MPs under the Youth Forum in Parliament are expected to table a motion calling on Government to introduce the program.

Why a National Youth Internship and Service Program.

The success of such programs in other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa has generated interest which resulted in a commitment of the declaration of the special summit of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region Heads of Government on the Fight against Youth Unemployment through infrastructure Development and investment promotion which was signed by President of Uganda was to the effect that to introduce mandatory National Youth Service and Internship Programs in Member states focusing on short term modules in technical skills, civic competencies and patriotism.

Furthermore, the Parliamentary Committee on Gender Labour and Social Development in its report on the Ministerial Policy Statement and Budget estimates for FY 2014/2015 recommended that Government should support the internship program initiated by the National Youth Council to prepare youth to cope with the employment challenge.

The good news is, development of youth service and internship programs is already called for in existing legislation.  One of the objectives of The National Employment Policy for Uganda (2011) is: ‘To promote in-employment skills development, training and apprenticeships and/or internships, especially for the youth’

In its section on ‘Promotion of Youth Employment’ the Policy refers to the development and implementation of a National Action Plan on Youth Employment (NAPYE) which will, amongst other initiatives, ‘promote job placement, volunteer schemes and/or internships to enable young people to acquire the requisite job training and hands on experience.’

And one of the interventions in the recently approved NDP II is to ‘institutionalize internship and apprenticeship for hands-on training in both private and public organizations’.

Once established, the proposed National Youth Internship and Service program will make it mandatory for Non Governmental Organizations, Government Organizations and all its entities to provide internship placements for fresh graduates. By so doing, two birds will be killed with one stone: deal with issues of experience for fresh graduates and also provide employment opportunities for them.

The writer is a policy and communications officer of the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs