In this hard economic times what should
the youth do?
This is a question I have asked myself
for a very long time. Though am yet to come up with a conclusive
answer, it has led me to wonder about more pertinent issues
affecting me and other young people in societies nowadays all over
the world. I recently saw a news item on television that actually
proved to me am not the only one facing the same predicament. A
young man was recently barred by the government( in Kenya) from going
to the middle east to work as a driver in a company he had secured a
job despite having all the requisite documents allowing him to go.
The reason? In the recent past countries in the middle east have been
accused of committing unimaginable cruelty to citizens who go to work
there as casual laboures especially as house helps. The stories that
we have been told by those who have by the grace of God made it back
home in one piece so to speaking have been barbaric, heart breaking
and outright unacceptable.
The Kenya government instead of using
its domestic ties with this countries to put an end to this
sufferings has reverted to denying its citizens a chance to go work
in those countries. Back to the story of the young man who was among
the victims of this act of the government. He said in the news
article he opted to go work in the middle east as a driver since he
has been unable to secure gainful employment in Kenya despite having
two degrees from Nairobi university( One of the best university in
the country and the whole of the East African region). His is a
plight faced by many young people in the country as well as those of
other young people the world over. Despite the inherent dangers he
might face if he were to go and work in the middle east, he non the
less opts to risk going because the options back home are limited.
While some countries are grappling with the possibility of having a
deficit in skilled labour in the coming years due to their aging
populations for instance Japan, Africa is facing the opposite
challenge. The number of youth who can provide skilled labour
courtesy of acquired education far outweighs the job opportunities
available.
I am also victim of the same. Despite
having a degree in Commerce majoring in finance, It has been a
challenge to get a formal job. But at the end of the day, one must
make a living. So I have had to do informal jobs to make ends meet.
This trend is quite counter productive as it robs the youth and the
country necessary manpower to spur economic growth. As a result crime
rates and other social evils are bound to increase as the young
people try to make a living against very hard economic background
being experienced the world over. Hopefully as technology continues
to become more entrenched in the day to day running of affairs the
world over the youth might benefit form jobs created by the sector.
For those of you reading this, I would like to ask you to please list
a number of companies that offer genuine online job opportunities as
this is the easiest avenue I can honestly think of of utilizing the
vast majority of skilled youth who are unable to secure formal day
jobs.
If I can be able to get such an
opportunity, my vision is to help as many young people as possible
earn a living doing work online. If international donors can shift
their focus from funding education wholly and concentrate on
providing job opportunities to the already skilled labour by
partnering with companies in their native countries that require
business process outsourcing services such as data entry, data mining
e.t.c. I believe this waste of skilled labour can be reduced. An
example of such a scenario as I see it is as follows:-
Hypothetically speaking, assume a
country in Europe say Germany has a company X that requires data
entry services and is willing to outsource this service. A donor from
Germany can partner with a local internet service provider in Kenya
say Safaricom and advance loans to the youth in the form of laptops
and a modem. The terms of the loan would include a clause that
requires the beneficiary of the loan to repay the loan form the
proceeds gotten from the data entry jobs provided by company X from
Germany courtesy of an agreement with the donor. For this to work,
company X can come up with a framework that ensures a certain
percentage of earnings by each beneficiary goes to Safaricom to repay
the loan while the rest goes to the beneficiary.. Thereby the company
X gets value for its money by getting its work done, Safaricom gets
to recoup its profits from loaned laptops and modems; the youth get
to earn a living and the donor realizes his/her goal of reducing the
level of unemployment.
This is just one scenario that I think
might work and if am able by the graces of God to one day be in a
postion that may facilitate me with the necessary coonections to
realize this dream, I think the level of unemplyment can be greatly
be reduced. But until then I can only work hard and hope the
situation in the world economy will improve. For those in a postion
to do such a feat, I would encourage you to do so as it is a win win
situation all round. GOD BLESS.
