Unemployment is caused by unemployability

PIC:  Workers busy inside Phenix Factory. (File photo)

OPINION

 By Ismail Isaac Lukwago Ntegana

Uganda like many other developing countries is currently faced with the burden of youth unemployment and underemployment.

The Arab spring, the current situation in Syria and Iraq, the Kasese confrontations, Boko Haram uprising in Nigeria, Alshabab problem in Somalia are as result of youth hopelessness and inaction.   In other words, youth unemployment is the current greatest danger to national and international security.

As teacher and observer, I have come to believe that many of our graduates the across developing world are not ready to work in the global world. Our education systems are not equipping the learners with the skills that can enable them to be employed or to employ themselves in this century.

The Government of Uganda like many other African governments has put forward strategies that are intended to reduce or eliminate unemployment but most often the resources invested in such good intentions are wasted since we are only dealing with symptoms and not tackling the causes. We, therefore, end up giving wrong medications. In my sincere opinion the rampant unemployment is caused by unemployability among our young people.

Many of our young people cannot manage themselves and, therefore, cannot manage others.

I have often asked students pursuing Human Resource Management studies how they expect to manage others if they cannot manage themselves. In life one cannot give what one does not have.  Many young graduates cannot work under minimum supervision and yet most employers hate supervising people as if they are supervising animals.

 As society, we are poor at time management, personal resource management, we lack self control and discipline which explains the high rate of alcohol and drug abuse among our young people even those that have attained minimum education. Many young graduates are living beyond their means and, therefore, cannot save nor invest. Our education system has only exposed our learners to consumption and not investment and even the few that get jobs are often highly indebted for wrong reasons such as buying cars or domestic appliances.

Many of our graduates are poor at planning and organising, which are very essential either as employees or as employers. Failure to plan and organise is planning to fail. One cannot develop unless one has a plan. Our young people have no ambitions partly because they lack real role models and one cannot go where they have not planned to go or guided to go. Most young people have no dreams other than drinking and attending music concerts.

People without initiative and enterprise are poor employees and employers. The reason why Indians and other people from Asian can survive in any part of the world is due to their high level of enterprise and initiative. These people get new ideas and strive to make them real. What we do, is to do what our neighbours are doing and we are not self-driving.

One cannot imagine the inability among young people to solve problems unless one has worked or interacted with them. Most of our young people cannot solve any logical challenges yet the work place is full of problems that need urgent solutions. Why are guys in Katwe able to produce products that our graduates cannot even imagine. In our University we have brought on guys from Katwe who have produced products with the hope that our learners can interact with them and produce better products but in most cases our learners prefer classroom theories to activities that seem to make them dirty or those that require a lot of trouble mental energy.

Though we are living in era of technology, most of our young people are not technologically prepared. Anyone who has visited facebook, snapchat and other social media platforms can agree with me that most of the time our young people spend on these platforms is abused. Most young people spend endless time on you tube not to learn something new but watching music videos. Even those that have graduated in Information Technology cannot perform basic tasks using the skills that they have learnt from school.

Most of our young graduates lack communication and interpersonal skills.  I have met graduates who cannot speak or write clearly. These people most often cannot listen nor appreciate other people with whom they are working with. In 2016, people are still held up in their tribal and religious biases!!! People cannot comprehend basic instructions nor can they instruct others.

The writer is a lecturer at the International University of East Africa, Kampala