Let youths talk about unemployment

AFTER reading Ahmad Yazid Othman’s (CEO of the Malay Economic Action Council) letter on fair minimum wage, “Working out a fair minimum wage” ( The Star, Oct 3), I came across my friend Min Chia’s write-up about youth unemployment after she watched a video titled “200,000 Malaysians graduates are unemployed” by R.AGE, the youth news and lifestyle platform of The Star.

Min Chia is the co-founder of E-lluminate, a social enterprise that aims to empower refugees through education, and equipping them with vocational and entrepreneurial skills.

But first of all, let’s be very honest.

No one wants to be jobless.

I bet you that youths and even working adults do not want to ask for financial assistance because they can’t feed themselves. Would you want to buy food with the money you asked from your parents? Do you think it’s cool being scrutinised by your parents’ friends and relatives when they learn that you are jobless?

I believe no one wants to be in such circumstances.

Unemployment exists for many reasons and I believe that many have read the statistics and know that it is serious.

Our country is moving towards developed nation status but here’s a question: Is economic development equal to change in mindset (over time, for better or worse)?

A student who was about to start his internship came up to me after a workshop and asked for advice on which company he should work for. The truth is no one can tell you who you can be or where you should be, not even your parents. “Do things that make you happy” is a cliché but it is the best way for you to gauge what you want to do.

I have met youths in their late 20s who chose to remain unemployed but they create artwork and write. One of them told me it was hard to find a full-time job that allowed him time to be involved in his art.

I admire these people because the path they have chosen is not easy. One might argue that some of them are quite well-off but at least they persevere and are true to themselves.

Lack of skills has been pointed out as a reason for youth unemployment, but are they 100% sure that they don’t have the right skills? I did not have any working skills when I started my job as an engineer. None of the skills I eventually used in the five years of my engineering career were learnt from my tertiary education. So, if it’s not because of lack of skills, then what?

Sometimes we blame youths for being picky about jobs. But aren’t adults in some way responsible for this attitude? Last month, I did some ground work on what motivates parents to send their children to college. Most of the hawkers I talked to told me they don’t want their children to be in a job like theirs because it’s a hard life.

They wanted their children to study and get better jobs elsewhere, not by the roadside and under the sun.

We could also say that traditional skills are not being passed on to the next generation but have we cultivated the right mindset for this?

I’m concerned that youths were not represented in the R.AGE video. Perhaps they were interviewed earlier but were not included in the final product.

I strongly believe that if we are to solve the unemployment challenge, we need to start promoting the narratives of youths. Hopefully, this would empower them to solve this complex problem one step at a time.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou CHONG YONG YEE Petaling Jaya