‘Eliminate youth unemployment’
THE private sector should support Government’s zeal to address youth unemployment through home-grown sustainable empowerment strategies, a think tank has advised.
Policy Monitoring and Research Centre (PMRC) executive director, Bernadette Deka, said Government has created multiple policy framework, and that the private sector should move in and support the efforts.
Ms Deka said the framework in place was aimed at encouraging increased participation of young people in the country’s economic development agenda.
She observed however that despite the efforts, youth unemployment was still a challenge in Zambia estimated at about 10.5 percent, above the national average unemployment of about 7.4 percent.
This is contained in a statement issued in Lusaka yesterday.
‘‘Having a youthful population gives us a huge opportunity to create tangible and sustainable development for Zambia by placing strong emphasis on youth empowerment now and for the future.
‘‘With approximately 75 percent of Zambia’s population under the age of 30 years the country needs to reconfigure its strategies to harness this youthful generation and create opportunities for the future,’’ Ms Deka said.
PMRC recommended strengthening labour regulations and skills development programmes should be undertaken, focusing on policies to improve the quality of labour supply.
She said Zambia should be able to achieve better market matches between available stock of labour force and the demands of industry.
Ms Deka said the interventions should include but not limited to skills training, education, expansion of education access with quality, especially for low income households.
She said Zambia’s industry use of foreign skilled workers demonstrated further evidence of the shortage of well-trained nationals in some fields.
The private sector, she said, was well-placed to fil the gaps and ensue that the country’s development agenda was accelerated.
Ms Deka said there was also a need to shift university programmes towards producing professionals who could meet the needs of industry.
Zambia this week celebrated Youth Day dubbed “Zambian Youth: Generation Unlimited,” on the backdrop of International Women’s Day with the urgent reminder to harness the demographic dividend in view of the country’s youthful population.