St John of God moves to reduce unemployment

At a time when unemployment is fast becoming a pandemic in Malawi, Saint John of God has joined stakeholders in helping government to fight against this bubonic plague.

According to the organisation’s director of services, Charles Masulani, the rate of unemployment in the country is increasing daily and if the battle against joblessness is only left in the hands of government nothing tangible will be achieved.

Masulani told Malawi24 on Friday that upon realising that the battle requires concerted efforts, his organization offered to ease the pressure by introducing an institute of vocational training which will be training idle youths in different entrepreneurial studies on a free basis.

“We have established this institute which will be recruiting idle youths in the country to study entrepreneurship courses without them paying fees.”

“We have done this upon realising that a lot of people in the country are not employed so we are ready to make them employ themselves and later employ others,” said Masulani.

The organisation will be training these idle youths in electronics, hospitality, mechanics and soap production, among other notable courses.

According to Masulani, his organisation is working with the Technical and Vocational Training Authority (TEVETA) such that those who will be succeeding in their desired courses will be awarded certificates by TEVETA.

“We will be working with the ministry of labour and TEVETA in carrying out this exercise. We believe the youths we are going to train are going to be productive enough so that we change the current state of affairs on the job market,” said Masulani.

However it is very unfortunate to understand that some youths in the country usually take such opportunities for granted. Some Malawian youths shun enrolling with these vocational colleges because they want to study in colleges where courses leading them to white collar jobs are offered.

Charles Kajoloweka, leader of Malawi Youth and Society, says every person aged between 10 and 35 years is regarded as a youth and together they make up 70 percent of the country’s population. According to Kajoloweka, joblessness among the youth in the country is becoming a serious concern because unemployment figures are still growing with no sign of stabilising.

Said Kajoloweka: “Our statistics show that in 2008 national youth unemployment rate was at 43.3 percent but recent findings indicate that the rate has now jumped to 60 percent. It’s a huge crisis.”