Youth unemployment should top nation’s priorities
As a country, we must make creation of jobs a top priority. The focus should in particular be on tackling youth unemployment which has been described as a ticking time bomb.
Preparing young people for the labour market, and ensuring they can find a foothold in it, must be among our top priorities, alongside efforts to reform the labour market.
While young people should be the engine that drives the nation’s economy, many of them are unemployed and living in poverty. It’s an untenable situation that has been made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The youth form about 60 per cent of the total labour force in the country, but a majority — about 65 per cent — are unemployed.
With over one million entrants joining the labour market annually, things are expected to get even worse.
It is also lamentable that most of those that are absorbed into the labour market end up in jobs or positions that do not match their professional qualifications or career passions.
The high level of unemployment has been linked to the rising crime rate and insecurity in the country.
With the election campaigns that start two years early, young people are likely to be exposed to manipulation by candidates and parties as elections draw close.
The problem of joblessness is no longer an urban one. It is also widespread in the counties, which with devolved functions, too have a responsibility in tackling the crisis.
Over the years, governments have developed programmes to tackle unemployment.
But many of the programmes are not commensurate to the gravity of the problem.
A culture of entrepreneurship and creativity is now needed to cure joblessness and poverty among the youth.
This can be done by establishing more incubation centres, supporting the youth to access capital and coming up with policies that support Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and startups.
This can boosted by enhancing funds available to the youth, provide markets by procuring more from youth-owned enterprises and, most importantly, promptly paying for government supplies both at county and national levels to enable the youth businesses remain afloat.
There is also a need to transform our education system to fit our labour demands.
Out of 750,000 youth who graduate from various tertiary institutions in the country, only 25 per cent access employment.
There is need to ensure that Kenya’s education curriculum responds to the times, and caters for the youthful population’s need for employ-ability, while also ensuring the production of skills and knowledge aligned to the country’s development needs.
Also, the private sector and development partners must be involved in employment and skills development.
The private sector needs to be strongly linked to the education and training systems to meet labour market needs.
Companies should be given incentives to offer young people apprenticeships, internships, mentorships and even skills certification programmes.
The government should also create robust policies to stimulate economic growth and create employment opportunities.
It is incumbent upon the government to make good use of the country’s demographic dividend — a deep pool of youth, talent and creativity.
That is why government need an ambitious investment plan to help create jobs. — The writer is a public policy analyst —[email protected]
