EDITORIAL: Addressing youth unemployment
IN Barbados, greater focus must be placed on creating opportunities for young people to be gainfully employed.
To date, the Ministry of Youth and Community Empowerment has indicated that it is working assiduously to create opportunities for youth to be employed, recognising that there is a significant number of young individuals who wish to become entrepreneurs. As such, the Ministry launched the National Creativity for Employment and Business Opportunity (CEBO) Training of Trainers workshop only last month, and this was sponsored by the CARICOM Secretariat. The objective of the CEBO project, it was said at the time, is to engage, inspire and create entrepreneurial interest and action among young CARICOM nationals.
Given that a number of school leavers are currently unemployed and that entrepreneurship has been declared a critical component in the country’s overall economic recovery strategy to rescue, restore and rebuild (the 3Rs), it is good to see such programmes coming on stream. It is also great to hear that the Ministry of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports has also partnered with the UK-based charity, Prince’s Trust International, to address the issue of unemployment amongst youth and to give more Barbadian youth an opportunity to gain critical job skills and work experience. What is interesting, is that this Get Into Programme is not only concerned with ensuring youth have the necessary qualifications and certification to fit into a job, but the programme provides youth with opportunities to gain valuable work experience as well. This is key in addressing the issue of unemployment, since many youth often leave school with just “book knowledge” and it is at times hard for them to find a job that appeals to them, without having the requisite work experience to boot.
Now according to research, there are a number of benefits for youth who participate in work experience programmes. These benefits include increasing one’s knowledge of specific occupational skills and workplace settings, gaining career readiness skills including the “soft skills” that employers look for in entry-level workers, establishing a work history and connections with employers that can aid in future job searches, and also developing an understanding of different occupations, in order to make informed career choices. Thus, according to the proponents of the Get Into Programme, that programme will benefit youth, giving them a chance to gain work experience and receive training in a specific sector, via the programme. It also focuses on their employability skills, to help them move into a job after the course. Youth therefore will spend time training on the job and gain valuable work experience in their chosen sector. In order to give them the best chance of getting a job after the programme, the programme runs courses in sectors where they know jobs are most likely to be available and this is key in reducing youth unemployment.
That said, whilst Government is making an effort to assist our youth, more of our Social Partners must come on board to help by providing young people with internship and other opportunities, so they can get a taste of the working world, hone any skills they may have and find the niche areas that may interest them, career wise.
Too many of our young people are unemployed or underemployed and thus, we must get more creative in helping them to help themselves become productive members of society.