On
November 16th, the Guardian newspaper Nigeria and The Guardian UK
coincidentally published the current unemployment figures in Nigeria and
Britain, respectively. The
statistics are overwhelming.
The
Guardian Nigeria reports:
National Bureau of Statistics yesterday said the rate of unemployment and inflation is on the rise in the country…”
According to NBS, unemployment rate in Nigeria increased to
23.9% during the first half of the year. In addition to the already daunting statistics
of over 43million unemployed youth, an additional 1.8million people joined the
long queue.
The Bureau attributed the rise in the ranks of the nation’s unemployed to fresh entrants to the job market and worker layoffs across all sectors of the economy in the course of the year.”
Meanwhile, in the UK, the current statistics postulates that
jobless youth between 16 to 24years old is now at 1.02million.
The
Guardian UK reports:
The Office for National Statistics said that there were a total 2.62 million unemployed people in the quarter, the highest total since 1994. That left the unemployment rate at a bigger than expected 8.3%, the highest since 1996.
By the end of the next semester, more young people
will be churned out of academic institutions, with “high hopes” of employment
opportunities. Or maybe not.
Someone asked on a social media network recently, “Is 2012
the year of entrepreneur?” That won’t happen, unless we all make it happen-
government and existing companies provide friendly environment for budding
entrepreneurs.
So beyond the overwhelming statistics of unemployment at its
peak in different countries across the world, how can we tackle the challenge?
School
proprietors, government leaders, Alumni network and other stakeholders should
put resources together to introduce “High school Seed Grant” for fresh High
School Graduates to build their business acumen before they venture into
universities.
University-age
youth should pursue their passion.
Challenge yourself to learn more than you would a normal day at school.
Who knows, your passion eventually might be what you'll earn your livelihood
and help others secure theirs through employment opportunities you create.
I think it
is weird for Employers to always complain there are no employable skills for
their organizations. That is a cheap excuse. What is their Human Resource department
for if not to train new job entrants? They should start seeing it as part of
their Corporate Social Responsibilities, if it will make them feel better about
investing in youth.
There is
the challenge of age and experience discrimination for new job entrants. From
the part of the world where I come from, employers sometimes ask for three to
five years experience from job applicants. Now, if you are a new graduate, this
might sound unfair. But here is a realistic way to overcome that- Youth Volunteer!
Imagine if
you start volunteering or interning in professional organizations from your first year in
college, by the time you are graduating in 4-5years, you will have the required
job experience employers often request. But beware of volunteer fatigue and
situations where potential employers will want you to keep volunteering or keep
you at internship level after you graduate just because they want cheap labor!
The
jobless statistics are not going away. To reverse the current trend, we need a
dramatic overhaul of the current approach.
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