An International Conference on Putting Youth to Work
is underway in Dakar, Senegal until 30 January 2014. The event has been
organized by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in
partnership with the Partnership for Economic Policy. It is meant to be a
platform for sharing ideas towards solutions to Africa’s predicament of mass
youth unemployment.
It has been reported that 83 percent of the unemployed
in Uganda are youth; the figures in Zimbabwe and Senegal stand at 68 and 56
percent respectively.
Youth unemployment is not unique to Africa. Western
Europe and other parts of the world are in difficult circumstances as well. In
the UK, it has been found that
half of the parents are in the dark about their children’s career options.
In a survey done by Ernst and Young in the UK, it was
found that parents and employers had different perceptions about the value of
going to university. While parents valued a university qualification, employers
were more interested in work experience. In the OECD’s Africa Economic Outlook
2012 Report
focusing on youth employment, it was noted that though schools and institutions
of higher learning in most African countries are not providing young people
with the skills employers are looking for, a bigger problem is the low demand
for labour.
