ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
As the law enforcement operation has come to conclusion, one of the burning issues for the government is resolving the high rate of unemployment among the youth which is the root of all problems in the country.
According to demographers, 70 precents of the Ethiopian population is below the age of 30. Agriculture is the base for the economy and employs almost 80 percent of the labour force. The job creation capacity of the service and manufacturing sector is still underdeveloped. Hence much effort is needed to expand these sectors.
Against this back drop, providing education and adequate job opportunities for this segment of the society is critical to make the nation’s future bright. Getachew Assefa is an economist. He said Many consider a four percent to five percent unemployment rate to be full employment and not particularly concerning, it is tolerable even in the case of advanced countries.
According to Getachew, in the developing countries such as Ethiopia, the unemployment rate is predicted up to 20 percent.
Reducing unemployment is an international concern. In fact, goal eight of the sustainable development goals state that Increasing labour productivity, reducing the unemployment rate, especially for young people, and improving access to financial services and benefits are essential components of sustained and inclusive economic growth. Those there has been limited success, the Ethiopian government has also given due emphasis to the issue.
Looking the matter from the perspective of micro economy, one of the key issues that need to be done is changing the mindset of the youth. The youth has to be job creators rather than job seekers. And the government has to facilitate several mechanisms in order to bring about attitudinal change in this regard. Further, financial institutions have to also increase access to start up finance to bring about meaningful change in the economy, as to him.
In the past couple of years, the government has allocated billions in revolving fund to create job to the unemployed youth through loan provision so that they create their own jobs.
Using this fund, the youth mostly they engaged in small scale enterprises like metal and wood work, food preparation, garment textile, constructing coble roads and waste management.
The problem, as to experts, is the issues of sustainability. These sectors only bring about temporary solution. Many reasons can be mentioned for this including insufficient market access, lack of raw materials supply, and the likes.
Long term solutions could be brought about through effective macro-economic policies, knowledge and technology transfer and sustainable generation of hard currency among others. On the other hand, due emphasis has to be given to creating jobs to the rapidly growing new university graduates.
In the aspect of the macro-economic level, issues such as the government policy execution capacity is a key issue. It has been witnessed many times that despite the presence of good policy, the desired objectives have not been met due to poor execution capacity. This is also the case for the revolving fund. The offices working in the sector need to look beyond the business as usual scenario.
Due to discrepancy between the available job and labour type in many, the labour force goes to the informal economic sector. The unavailability of job in the formal sector forces job seekers to go to the unwanted direction only to survive. They engage in selling used closes and other materials to support themselves and their families.
On the other hand, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Ethiopia seeks to create competent and self-reliant citizens to contribute to the economic and social development of the country, thus improving the livelihoods of all Ethiopians and sustainably reducing poverty.
The education and training policies of the Ethiopia rests on a simplified presumption that to produce more skilled credentials is the same as to produce more human capital. This policy rhetoric is saying that increasing human capital serves individuals and societies as a straight route to economic development, since the production system of the country is labour-intensive.
The driving goal of the national TVET strategy is to strengthen the culture of self-employment and support job creation in the economy through the expansion TVET. Regardless of this, urban employment and unemployment surveys showed that TEVT graduates become government wage employees. Hence, the impacts of TVET in reducing unemployment and encouraging self-employment have to be properly assessed.
The Ethiopian Herald December 6/2020
