Youth
unemployment continues to be a major problem in Zimbabwe, where youths who
constitute a large proportion of the population are still without gainful
employment. While several explanations have been offered to explain this
phenomenon, I believe these reasons, no matter the supposed justification, are
red herrings that do not adequately address the issue of youth unemployment.
In the last
couple of years, the story of Africa rising has been well documented, as the
emerging markets outperformed most established western markets. With an annual
inflation rate which is lower than her regional peers, as well as a relatively
higher Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate than regional counterparts,
Zimbabwe too has in a sense, been rising.
The unfortunate
paradox that the largest population sub-group in the country still represents
the largest strata of those unemployed, however still exists. This renders
whatever positive strides that have been made irrelevant in the grand scheme of
things, as unemployed youths could potentially present risks of social
upheavals within the country`s fragile economy.
There is
something fundamentally wrong with our education system, which places a
significantly greater emphasis on the lustre of white-collar jobs. In most cases, non-white collar jobs are
looked down upon, as most young people dream of completing their tertiary
education and joining the corporate world.
Sadly, this dream is never realised as the hard truths of a stagnant
economy not creating enough jobs for its young people gently sets in. This
ultimately leads to a high number of educated youths who cannot find jobs.
One may even
question the much ranted about high literacy rate Zimbabwe has, given the high
numbers of people who fell prey to
various illegal pyramid schemes and lost money to these sham institutions, McDowells
and Geozing scandals being examples. This signifies that this literacy may not
be translating into financial literacy for instance. The failure of most
graduates to be innovative enough and apply themselves meaningfully in their
respective fields of study to counter the adverse effects of a non-performing
job market, points out the gaping holes in the structure of our education
system. With all the qualifications and
certificates the youths are garnering, these nonetheless are failing to
translate into tangible upshots on the ground.
This evidently
calls for a paradigm shift in our approach to the problem of youth
unemployment. Technical education that equips our youths with relevant skills
in a developing economy like ours should be embraced. It makes no sense for the
country to keep on churning out accountants, risk managers as well as bankers
when our economy clearly lacks the capacity to absorb this vast number of
graduates, ultimately leading to the phenomenon of the educated unemployed.
While there is nothing wrong with one choosing to be an accountant, the cold
hard truth remains, that Zimbabwe`s economy is suppressed and cannot therefore
generate enough jobs for its people. Moreover, the unwillingness and somewhat,
failure by the government to acknowledge the severity of unemployment in the
country as a whole, also beggars belief as to how the powers that be are in
denial. This, on the back of recent comments by the Minister of Finance that
the unemployment numbers where overstated. Evidence on the ground however,
points to the contrary.
The Ministry of
Youth and Indigenisation has been noting the low uptake in the funds directed
towards financing various initiatives the youths want to venture into. One of
the reasons for this I believe, is because of the inflexibility of the
country`s education system. As a result, innovation in the youths is stifled as
they only acquire highly bookish knowledge, which cannot be applied in the real
world, in their many years of education at the country`s schools. This leads to
the young people failing to come up with feasible projects which are bankable;
hence the few people who apply for this government funding are turned away.
In the same way
as most of us will not be medical surgeons, or engineers, we all cannot be
employed in the formal sector. Yet it seems our education system has failed to
recognise this simple truth. It is a fallacy for anyone to think that merely
having a university certificate guarantees one`s employment in an economy like
ours, or any other economy for that matter. The youths are faced not only with
a system, but a society that pushes them to complete their formal education and
get a white-collar job. This also could explain the increase in many unemployed
youths who have been left behind by a system that fails to acknowledge their
gifting in other spheres like sport, art and several other technical areas.
Young people are
an important cog of our economy, and attention should be given to the problems
they face. Any economic growth that is not inclusive of our country`s youths
comes out to nought. Sadly this is something Africa as a whole seems to be
overlooking. It is estimated that about 60% of Africa`s population is under the
age of 24, the same dominating the labour market yet paradoxically, the youths
are the population sub-group with the most unemployed people. Governments must
step in to make the cost of hiring young inexperienced youths lower through youth
employment subsidies. However, this is alone is not adequate, as the formal
sector is overstretched as is, with low capacity utilisation in industries,
chronic liquidity challenges as well as
muted domestic demand.
Investment into
the youths to prepare them sufficiently to cope in the rapidly changing world
needs to be stepped up an ante. Training in Agriculture, and other
non-conventional technical fields cannot continue to be overlooked, as these
could possibly be a way of addressing the problem of youth unemployment in the country.
Furthermore, the education system needs to be re-evaluated to ensure it remains
relevant. Focus should not continue to
be placed only on formal education, but technical education should be
recognised too, as an important tool for tackling youth unemployment.
Much of this
argument rests on what the government and society needs to do for the youths,
but that would be a greatly misleading notion. At the end of the day, it is the
responsibility of the young people to own their problems, and apply themselves
to finding solutions for the advancement of their lives. It will be futile to
keep looking towards politicians to come up with solutions. As has been
witnessed the world over, governments have failed to make any meaningful
headway in addressing unemployment. Platforms where youths interact and
collectively proffer solutions to the problems they face should be encouraged,
and support from the local communities as well as civil society and ultimately,
the government will be crucial in coming up with solutions to the scourge of
youth unemployment.
Comments
Post a Comment