Young and unemployed: the time-bomb bound to explode

Mostly unemployed youth check on a notice board for shortlisted candidates for employment in the civil service at Kololo Airstrip. Higher education institutions of learning should design courses that suit society needs.

What you need to know:

The traditional perception that society holds the formal white-collar job to be the ultimate form of employment is being challenged, as Ugandans are being pressured to fall into a specific type of job that the country cannot offer

A few weeks ago, 26-year-old Juliet Naluggya committed suicide by jumping off the 14th floor of Worker’s House in uptown Kampala City.

After five years of looking for a job despite having two degrees under her belt, the last in library and information science from Makerere University in 2007, Naluggya had come to the building on a promise of a job offer.

But on that fateful day, five years of disappointments would culminate. According to local reports, she was disappointed once again. After discovering the gentleman she was supposed to meet was not known in the premises, something in her snapped, and she jumped.

Naluggya’s story is an extreme, but dire warning on the alarmingly increasing levels of unemployment plaguing this country.

With 350,000 students continuing to graduate from tertiary institutions annually, degrees are rendered useless almost upon award – and continue to add to the pool of existing unemployed.

The highest percentage of the unemployed masses is youths. According to the Africa Development Indicators report released by the World Bank, youth unemployment is at 83 percent in Uganda. About 256,700 youths can’t find jobs every year in Uganda.

Sacrifices made behind the scenes
Many parents have paid the price. In the past, most felt assured investing in their child’s education is a worthwhile cause, and even end up using their retirement packages in a bid to see their children through school. These include selling off plots of land, houses and other investments, largely on faith their children will be able to take care of them in the future.

Christine Nabadda, another unemployed graduate, tells of how her father had to take a number of soft loans in order to pay her way through university – and that he still hasn’t seen any results.

“We were nine children at home and we were all in school at the same time so it was financially straining for my father. I remember he would take loans in order to pay my tuition and when it wasn’t possible, I would talk to my uncle who would also usually get advances at work,” she narrates.

“My father had to sell off his land in order to educate my brother and I. We thought we would be able to get the government quota scholarship but we didn’t make it so our father had to sell land for us to go to Makerere. I would like to be in position to buy him land in payment for the one he sold but I can’t because I do not have a job after graduating three years ago,” she says.

The traditional perception that society holds the formal white-collar job to be the ultimate form of employment is being challenged, as Ugandans are being pressured to fall into a specific type of job that the country cannot offer.

Brooding social frustration
The classic tale of 27-year-old Gloria Nakamate (not her real name) is another that confirms that the mismatch between expectations and opportunities.

When she finished campus five years ago, Nakamate anticipated a bright future. She is now embarrassed to tell her tale.

“It was finally time to fulfill my long awaited dream of being that corporate independent lady. It thought all I needed to do was write my CV, drop applications at all possible organizations I would like to work for, get called for interviews, get hired, land my dream job and begin to live my dream,” she says.

Five years down the road, Nakamate remains unemployed. She walks around with a worn look and eyes devoid of hope. When asked about what she has been doing for the five years, she lazily exhales and shakes her head as if to say she cannot find words to describe what she has gone through.

“After a year of job searching, I got a six-month contract to arrange archives for a bank. We worked in some warehouse and were paid so little but because I need something to do, I took it. When it ended, I sat home for two more years and later got a job as a receptionist at a hotel”.

She was expected to spend the entire day standing and worked for long hours without being paid for overtime. Later, she was fired - on the grounds of being over qualified for the job. Nakamate has now joined the ranks of jobless once again.

Unforeseen dangers of not employing the youth
In a bid to survive, many unemployed youth have taken to unimaginable alternatives.

Some simply undersell their qualifications, becoming drivers with university degrees.

Others take notoriously undervalued internships. Though it can lead to formal employment for some, one has to be ready to work for at least a year with very little or no payment at all. Supporting transport and meals in that time is a challenge at best, and impossibility at worst.

Others are becoming increasingly involvement in the darker side of survival. Drug trafficking and violent crime has also been linked to high unemployment rates. No jobs can also result in higher cases of sexual exploitation – one such recent example was the shocking figure of at least 600 job-seeking young Ugandan girls who have been tricked into the Malaysian sex trade, following the promise of legitimate high-paying jobs there. Because they are desperate to earn, they easily jump at any opportunity for a job, with little or no knowledge of what is exactly involved.

The vocational approach
Ms Jessica Alupo, minister of education and sports, says her plan to provide jobs will be achieved through giving grants to vocational institutions.

She argues that by getting more students into tertiary institutions through the Skills Development Programme, graduates with technical skills will begin filling a growing number spots in private enterprises looking to add value to their products.

But Livingstone Ssewanyana, the Executive Director of Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) says Uganda’s overwhelmingly informal economy means skills training needs to happen even earlier.

“Emphasis on vocational training should begin right from primary school level where people are taught to appreciate the importance of skills training,” he says.

In March, a new social entrepreneurship program was incorporated into the national curriculum for 45,000 students across the country after being contracted by the government of Uganda’s National Curriculum Development Center and the United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) in October 2010. Implemented by NGO Educate! – the programming sees secondary school students graduate with the ability to start enterprises in their communities.

“No longer will students simply be encouraged to memorize facts for the national exam, but now they will go out of the classroom and start enterprises and initiatives to solve the toughest challenges facing communities,” said Eric Glustrom, Educate! Co-Founder and President.

Ssewanyana notes that training is only half of the solution to the unemployment problem – he says government needs to simultaneously embark on a serious industrialization policy to make up for lost time, and invest in commercial agriculture.

“There should be available industries and commercial farms where people can work,” he says, echoing the emerging argument of value addition being what Uganda needs.

Ssewanyana recommends that Uganda adopt the Nigerian government’s National Youth Service, where all fresh graduates are required to work as a civil servant for at least one year.

“During this year, they are trained and put on government pay roll and government pays and houses them. They are placed in positions depending on their fields of specialty where they get to put into practice what they have learned in school,” he said.

“This kind of arrangement will avoid the cases of mass youth unemployment”.

Few options in the meantime
According to the 2010/2011 budget, the government allocated Shs44.5b towards job creation. A total of Shs3.5b was also allocated towards Youth Entrepreneurial Training Programmes, to be undertaken by Enterprise Uganda, they are meant to instill business management skills among the youth and to enable them join the job market or create their own enterprises.

It is the only mechanism the budget is using to target youth directly. But initial stages of the fund’s rollout have already been wrought with controversy concerning the requirements to qualify for a loan.

Ssewanyana says he does not think the fund will yield anything.

“I do not believe in giving out free money. People need to work in order to earn. I think it is just another political gimmick.”

In the meantime, graduates like Nakamatte are stuck in between training they never had a chance to get, and funding they can’t access because they do not meet the requirements.

For this lot, Nakamatte says she thinks the few available jobs should be given to people that are qualified.

“The few jobs that are available are being abused by nepotism. Jobs are being given to unqualified people just because they have relatives in hiring positions.”

She adds that the hiring process is not free and fair and that people on interview panels are often bribed. Nakamatte also highlights another reason for a high youth unemployment rate is that those who have reached the retirement age not retiring.

“Let the old people retire in order to give the young ones a chance to also work,” she said defiantly.

Until then, Nakamatte says unless she may just have to resign to very poor conditions, as most employers do not adhere to the labor laws.

“Many employers hire without signing contracts because they know people are desperate and will take the job anyway”.

Numbers
Uganda has five public and 29 private universities, two private and nine public university colleges, and 48 private and 51 public tertiary institutions according to the Uganda National Council for Higher Education (NCHE).
Although the Uganda Investment Authority estimates that 150,000 jobs are created annually NOTU told Daily Monitor last year that the country will need more than four times that – 500,000 to match its explosive population growth, which currently stands at the third-highest in the world, 3.2 per cent each year.