Prime
Govt should prioritise vocational education
Students of Nakawa Vocational Institute participate in a practical examination in 2014. Youth internship programmes enable students acquire hands-on experience and make them more relevant to in the job market. FILE PHOTO
For a country yearning to attain middle income status by 2020, there is need to take drastic measures, including redirecting the population’s mind-set in regard to individuals’ productivity.
One tested approach we need to pay attention to in order to achieve this goal, is to skill the population, particularly the youth.
It is against this backdrop that state minister for Karamoja Affairs Moses Kizige, while presiding at a graduation ceremony for Nawanyango Technical Institute in Kamuli District last week, urged Ugandans to embrace vocational studies and portable skills if they are to remain relevant on the job market (see Daily Monitor, August 22).
Although vocational education and training entail training which provides accredited training in job-related and technical skills, many Ugandans still enrol for vocational studies as a last resort.
This is because many parents and students are obsessed with university education. They wrongly believe that learning, knowledge, skills and ultimately success can only be attained through pursing university education.
To absorb this crave for university education, the number of universities in the country has exponentially increased from nine in 1999 to 52 in 2018 and still counting. Every year in Uganda, a total of 400,000 youth graduates join the job market. Unfortunately, the market is almost job saturated as only a maximum of 90,000 job opportunities are available. This leaves the remaining 310,000 youth unemployed.
Therefore, this begs the question as to how technically competent graduates from these universities are to confront societal challenges.
Given the high youth unemployment in the country in spite of the massive university education, it is critical that people start shifting focus to vocational studies that will make them job makers and not job seekers. That is the way to go.
It has not been lost to many, including political leaders in the country, that the numerous protests, often championed by the youth, are due to anger arising from among others, being jobless. Therefore, there is urgent need to train the youth with requisite skills that can enable them to be innovative as well as improve their productivity. These skills include welding, carpentry, electrical wiring, tailoring, etc.
Besides the skills, the youth should be facilitated with tools and equipment that will boost their innovation capacity. When the youth start making quality and standard products, their incomes and their living conditions will also improve.
It is high time the government, parents, students and the general public started regarding vocational studies as a priority and a sustainable lifelong undertaking.
