Botswana

The Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Moiseraele Goya said government is committed to the creation of job opportunities.

Speaking at the Francistown East youth workshop on Saturday, Mr Goya said while recession contributed to the increased youth unemployment rates, the government was still committed to availing programmes such as Youth Development Fund (YDF) and others to create employment.

“Due to the global recession, government could not create jobs for people and as a result, university graduates competed for limited job markets, however the government has come up with a number of programmes to lessen this,” he said. Mr Goya said another programme that the government came up with was the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), which had one of the objectives as the accelerated job creation in the tourism, agriculture and construction industries. He said the government also came up with the Target 20 000, which aimed at equipping the youth with skills and knowledge for the job market.

Mr Goya noted that his ministry was committed to offering quality education that would promote economic global competitiveness by equipping the youth with skills that would feed the labour market not only in Botswana. He, however, said the government alone could not afford to address the challenge of unemployment. “Young people should desist from depending on the government for jobs but should also play an active responsibility of creating job opportunities for themselves and others,” he said. Mr Goya called on institutions of learning to adapt their programmes in such a way that they would equip learners to meet the demand of the global job market. He said institutions should divert their graduates from being job seekers to being job creators because Botswana was not the only country that was faced with youth unemployment.