Tweet

Wanted: jobs for Africa’s youth - Education and training

Written by: Africa Renewal

Article Overview: “It is clear that to rise out of poverty, the people of our continent need jobs and education,” says ECA Executive Secretary Janneh. “Not just any job, but one that provides a decent wage and employment conditions.” According to the Addis Ababa-based ECA, it is crucial for countries to expand training, lifelong learning, education and other means of improving skills, with a particular focus on young people.

Wanted: jobs for Africa’s youth - Education and training

From Africa Renewal, Vol.20 #3 (October 2006), page 6

By Gumisai Mutume


“It is clear that to rise out of poverty, the people of our continent need jobs and education,” says ECA Executive Secretary Janneh. “Not just any job, but one that provides a decent wage and employment conditions.” According to the Addis Ababa-based ECA, it is crucial for countries to expand training, lifelong learning, education and other means of improving skills, with a particular focus on young people.

As a start, many countries need to rebuild a formal education system that declined rapidly during the last few decades from the effect of cost-cutting measures adopted at the urging of the World Bank and IMF, notes an ILO study led by University of Zambia lecturer Francis Chigunta. These austerity policies, known as “structural adjustment,” led to deep cuts in public spending, including for food, health and education. Many schools were obliged to introduce fees, contributing to a decline in attendance by students from poor families.

Many countries are now trying to boost school enrolment rates, with some success. The special emphasis on getting more girls into school should ultimately improve the employability of young women in Africa. However, an estimated 45 million children aged between 6 and 11 still do not attend school in Africa.

Other studies highlight shortcomings in the focus of many educational systems in Africa, which concentrate on educating students for often nonexistent formal white-collar jobs, rather than for technical or factory-type work, which may be available.

To increase the employability of the 1 million young school-leavers entering the job market annually without appropriate skills, the Egyptian government in 1991 began to provide technical and vocational training to secondary school students. Over a three-year period, students spend two days a week at school and four days a week in training in a business. More than 1,600 companies are involved in the programme, which has so far reached more than 15,000 students. Graduates often find immediate employment or set up their own small enterprises.

Related Articles
  Work at Home Jobs: 4 Steps to Get'er Done!
  Wanted: jobs for Africa’s youth
  5.3.4 The unemployed: Public sector training
  5.3 Training impacts: Public sector training
  6.3 Participatory skill development: For-profit and NGO training activities

Article Tags: Addis Ababa, Africa, ECA Executive Secretary Janneh, formal education system, Francis Chigunta, Gumisai Mutume, lifelong learning, University of Zambia lecturer, vocational training, white collar jobs, World Bank, young women in Africa



Related Forum Posts
Training - Louis: Some regulated industries mandate that you attend training. However, even then, finding time to meet those requirements becomes an issue. This may explain the growth of tele-seminars. To answer your questions though, ROI is very important and everyone needs to sell or market no matter what they do. The best tip I ever got on training is not to pitch training as training b/c even big companies have limited budgets for training but training rebranded as "sales support." It makes the ROI argument that much more appealing. Hope that helps. Good luck.
Re: Should Evan add a "Social Media Marketing" category to the f - Wanted to add my own vote, but the voting button was missing
Re: Need some information on freelance jobs! - oDesk is the same as Elance where you can bid on projects/jobs that are posted. When I was working in oDesk the main problem I experienced was the difficulty in getting my first job because of competition. There are already other service providers who already have a lot of completed jobs and good ratings with good feedback. So what I did was to bid on simple jobs - I bid a very low price so that I could just get a job and hopefully when I done it right or done it well I can have a good rating and feedback. That's how I began. I slowly build my reputation by completing simple jobs and eventually I can then compete with others and can bid high already.
Ivy League vs. Affordable school - To play devils Advocate .... Prestigious school vs. Education I can afford? Does going to a prestigious school gaurantee success? I'm sure it helps - imagine the contacts made - powerful I assume. Also there is the pressure of being an alma mater of a school where everyone else is driven to succeed by thier parents. But, what if you got the "Education you can afford". It's still education. You are forced to analyze, engage in relationships, manage your school mates, and deliver on deadlines. What's the common denominator when you get out of school? Is it the ability to take action? The ability to see the big picture and then take the necessary actions to bring a project to completion? There's that action word again! what do you think?
One Thing To Note - As a trainer myself, I'm always amazed at the lengths organizations go to to pay for training and then not follow through. Any training I design myself has to have at least an offer built in for future support as well, for the benefit of those receiving the training, the organizer and the people the trainee works with. Corporates don't seem to like this too much - they often seem to want to budget, sign it off, run it and close it off. I'd always ensure that there is the offer of ongoing support/challenge/development in some shape of form. Not sure what Louis or any other training providers find...


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How to Sell to the Price Driven Customer

SEO and the Entrepreneur

Winning Market Share in a Tough Economy

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.