Prime
Secure future by investing in youth
Mr Isaac Obulejo (centre) with some of the trainees at his workshop in Laropi Town, Moyo District, on July 12, 2024. PHOTO | FELIX WAROM OKELLO
What you need to know:
The issue: Youth skilling
Our view: As has been reiterated by many, we need to invest in the youth to attain an educated and skilled workforce, a force that can aptly compete on the global market. But to skill right and appropriately, the disruptions and innovations in this era must be taken into account.
Yesterday was World Youth Skills Day, and according to the United Nations, this day is in recognition of the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship as well as for addressing global challenges and advancing sustainable development. The theme this year is “Youth Skills for Peace and Development”.
In her message in observance of the day, Nwanne Vwede-Obahor, the Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme emphasized the need to empower young people with ever-evolving abilities to seize emerging opportunities which includes integrating emerging technologies into skills development programmes, and promoting skills development programmes that embrace diversity and inclusivity.
This and many other messages of the kind should be taken to heart and acted upon especially given the make-up of our population as per the 2024 National Population Census results.
With the age group, 17 and below making up 50.5 percent and 18-30 years making up 22.7 percent of the population, ours is a very young population. This is why young people must be skilled as a form of empowerment and not simply given cash handouts as is wont by certain leaders seeking cheap popularity and in the process locking the youth in the cycle of poverty. Throwing cash at unskilled youth is setting the country up for disaster. As has been reiterated by many, we need to invest in the youth to attain an educated and skilled workforce, a force that can aptly compete on the global market. But to skill right and appropriately, the disruptions and innovations in this era must be taken into account. We can’t skill according to a script from yesteryears and claim to be empowering young people for the future. The challenges that are unique to this age group must also be taken into account and addressed.
In our story of July 7, titled, “Govt urged to invest in young population”, Mr Jotham Musinguzi, the chairperson of the National Population Council, highlights some of these challenges as teenage pregnancies, early marriages, school dropouts, unemployment, and lack of career opportunities.
With these in mind, if we fail to do right by our young people by investing appropriately in them, we will have failed the future of our country.
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