adminThis has seen many youths leaving for foreign countries in search of employment opportunities, where some of them have been abused and taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers.
This, in turn, has led to incessant calls for a home grown solution so that youths can benefit from Government programmes aimed at employment creation.
The Government has responded positively by setting up a youth development loan facility provided by Old Mutual and administered by the Central African Building Society. The facility is negotiated through the Ministry of Youth Development and Employment Creation, and no collateral is required for youths to access the loan facility.
As a reciprocal measure towards youth empowerment, the International Labour Organisation and the MasterCard Foundation last month forged a unique partnership to promote decent work among young people facing a worsening job crisis marked by high unemployment, working poverty and youth discouragement.
Dubbed “Work4Youths,” the partnership with the ILO Youth Employment Programme will increase global awareness of the challenges facing youths as they move from education to the world of work.
The five-year, US$14,5 million “Work4Youth” partnership will support the improvement of youth employment policymaking and programme development worldwide.
The ILO Youth Employment Programme realised that this was the chance to give young people an opportunity to find decent work and eradicate poverty.
Decent work is also essential in fostering democracy and promoting sustainable development. Access to decent work is indispensable if young people are to realise their aspirations, improve their living conditions and make a positive contribution to society.
A recent ILO report warned of the creation of a “lost generation” of young people scarred by growing frustration with the lack of good jobs.
The ILO indicated that even though the absolute number of unemployed youths fell slightly since its peak in 2009 – from 75,8 million to 75,1 million in late 2010 – young people are increasingly struggling to find jobs, or are giving up on finding work.
The ILO and MasterCard Foundation partnership is set to provide accurate and timely youth employment and education data to policy makers around the world as they seek to tackle the challenges of youth employment.
The partnership is a good example of how policy-makers, the private-sector, other employers and educational institutions can engage with international organisations to promote the expansion of decent work opportunities for young men and women around the world.
Through the “Work4Youth” partnership, school to work transition surveys will be undertaken in 28 countries – including Zimbabwe – across five regions.
These surveys will increase the limited available information on difficulties facing young people during their transition to decent work, especially in developing countries.
The data and information generated by these surveys will be included in a series of analytical national, regional and global reports on youth employment.
The reports are designed to assist policy makers and practitioners working on questions of youth employment and school to work transitions in making informed program policy decisions to meet the needs of young people.
The ILO decent work paradigm aims at providing more and better jobs to young people, in conditions of freedom and in full respect of youth aspirations and rights at work. The inability to find stable employment creates a sense of frustration and idleness among young people. It poses significant challenges to young people themselves and societies at large.
Furthermore, it hampers the capacity of companies and countries to innovate and develop competitive advantages. Private sector is the main creator of present and future jobs worldwide. Partnerships between
public and private sector and the active engagement of the latter in the promotion of decent work for youth can be pivotal for eradicating poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
It is crucial to act now, as young people are increasingly becoming trapped in a vicious cycle of working poverty, with terrible lasting effects on their lives and their societies.
Learning opportunities must be provided for the young working poor to improve productivity, savings, investments and income without disrupting their daily work, which allows their subsistence.
Creative solutions and partnerships that address the youth employment challenge are urgently needed, and the “Work4Youth” partnership is an example of such an initiative. The MasterCard Foundation advances
micro-finance and youth learning to promote financial inclusion and prosperity.
Through collaboration with committed partners in 48 countries, The MasterCard Foundation is helping people living in poverty to access opportunities to learn and prosper. It is an independent and private foundation based in Toronto, Canada. It was established through the generosity of MasterCard Worldwide at the time of the company’s initial public offering in 2006.
The ILO is devoted to advancing opportunities for young women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.
It aims to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue in handling work-related issues. In promoting social issues and internationally recognised human and labour rights, the ILO continues to pursue its founding mission that social justice is essential to prosperity and lasting peace.
The “Youth4Work” programme is set to be good news for Zimbabwe, whose demographic structure is bottom heavy as youths – or those aged 30 and below – make up 65 percent of the population.
Many youths find themselves with nothing to do upon completing their high school, tertiary or university education due to the economic downturn of the past decade. These idle youths need to be empowered economically through job creation to help push back the threats of poverty and also to protect them from the temptations of the road to destruction.
Youthfulness is a volatile stage in life when the struggle to discover oneself, make vital decisions and embark on a journey that will inevitably shape their future takes place. As one observer put it – how a nation harnesses the energy of these restless young people has a bearing not only on individual lives, but also on the overall direction of society.
This calls for the responsible authorities to create an enabling environment to empower youths so that they do not wallow in poverty and turn to mischief.
Worse still, they can be left at the hands of those with sinister political motives who ply them with intoxicants to further their political agenda.
It is true that the current job market is starving university graduates of carrier opportunities and options, and youths are just settling for any job just to earn a living.
Online Reporter