Youth urged to protect themselves against unemployment

Youth have a role to play in safeguarding and protecting themselves from future unemployment.

This was the message Senator Harcourt Husbands, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, delivered to a number of students gathered for the World Children’s Day rally and concert held yesterday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

“I mentioned that one of the major challenges you will confront and especially those of you who are in the senior school looking to leave school next year or very soon, is that of youth unemployment. This is a big problem in Barbados. It is a big problem in the Caribbean. It is a big problem throughout the world. Wherever you go, the statistics on youth unemployment are alarming, even right here in Barbados. But with every challenge, there are opportunities,” Senator Husbands told the youth gathered.

He added, “Government has that responsibility; the private sector has that responsibility to provide opportunities for young people as they leave school and go into the world of work. But remember I talked about responsibilities earlier that go along with rights (in the Convention on the Rights of the Child). You also have a role to play in safeguarding yourself, protecting yourself against future unemployment. And how can you do that? It links back to the rights that you have to education; make full use of it.”

“So your first responsibility is to use that right that you have of a free and open educational system, to protect yourself against future unemployment,” Husbands maintained.

Giving some key advice to the students giving him a listening ear, Senator Husbands told them that they should seek to attain key subjects such as English, a foreign language and Mathematics. He also encouraged them to gain a skill.

“So when you leave school, I want you to be able to present yourself to the university or to some employer, as a person with a great profile, (with) the subjects that I have outlined in general. I also want you to have a record of service to your country, whether that community is your school community, whether that community is where you live. Get out there and volunteer and help people. And this, in my view, is the best insurance you will have for that problem that I said will confront you, of youth unemployment,” Husbands said.