Govt plans to recruit graduates as volunteers

PIC: Executive director of Institute of Work Culture and Ethics Sam Bwaya chats with assistant commissioner human resource management at the ministry of public service Florence Tayebwa Muhwezi after press conference on what should be done to promote work ethics practices to enhance performance and productivity. This was at Hotel Africana on March 1, 2018. (Credit: Ramadhan Abbey)

GRADUATE TRAINEE PROGRAMME

KAMPALA - The Government is working on a new strategy to promote good work ethics and culture among Ugandans with an aim of changing people's attitude towards work.

The strategy is to start with graduates fresh from the university.
 
According to the assistant commissioner human resource management at the public service ministry, Florence Tayebwa, the Government is already working on the introduction of National Services (NS).

If it is realised, the NS strategy will see graduates taken on as volunteers at various workplaces both within government and the private sector for a period of time.

Tayebwa was speaking to journalists ahead of the Second Work Culture and Ethics Day in Kampala scheduled for July 26, 2018.

The day is organised by the Institute of Work Culture and Ethics (IWCE) in partnership with the public service and labour ministries, as well as the directorate of ethics and integrity.

Norah Njuba, the chairperson IWCE, said various studies show that Ugandans are some of the laziest people in the world.

"It is true because even when you go to the 20 biggest private employers in this country, we have more foreigners doing the most technical jobs, which Ugandans are also qualified for," she added.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), which runs the countries' labour productivity, Uganda was among the bottom 25 out of 144 countries over the last five years.

The Global Competiveness Report (2014) also shows that Uganda has the lowest labour productivity in East African.

Njuba noted that during the Work Culture and Ethics Day, they will award organisations and individuals who have exhibited work ethics and culture.

The selection process kicked off on March 1. The competitors will go through a verification process by a team of judges, before identifying finalists.

The event is also aimed at publicising tools that may be used to assess the status of work culture and ethics for organisations and encourage organisations to instutionalise work culture and ethics in their policies and programmes.