31 Mar 2015

The government in collaboration with other stakeholders has come up with different initiatives to address the challenge of unemployment.

The Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Phillip Makgalemele, said this during the minister’s question time on March 27.

Mr Makgalemele, who is also the MP for Shoshong, told Parliament that the introduction of youth empowerment programmes was a priority for government, and as such, several strategies were implemented. 

“The government introduced the national internship programme in 2010 as a platform for skills transfer and development. More than 4 500 interns are currently enrolled in the programme with over a quarter of them being permanently absorbed. As a way of exposing the youth, not necessarily the graduates, to the world of work, the government recently reintroduced the Botswana national service programme/new Tirelo Setshaba. So far, more than 12 000 young people have been enrolled in the programme,” he said.

Mr Makgalemele noted that the Youth Development Fund had also been introduced to support young entrepreneurs to finance and grow their business ideas and  to create employment opportunities, not just for the young.

The assistant minister said to date more than 120 projects had been funded with an amount exceeding P100 million.  He said the fund had so far financed 597 projects to the tune of P239 million and the creation of 2 386 jobs.

“Graduates with vocational skills have also been assisted in the formation of companies to undertake construction maintenance and rehabilitate government facilities.  The youth companies benefit from the 15 per cent maintenance reservation programme.

The recruitment process for entry level positions has been deliberately shortened. For positions not requiring any form of experience in the public service, graduates are directly sourced from the graduate database without necessarily advertising the posts. More than 5 000 graduates have benefited from this dispensation since its inception in May 2008,” said the assistant minister.

He said government part time employment arrangement also provided unemployed graduates with an opportunity to offer their service in areas of need in the government.

Mr Makgalemele told Parliament that the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology was currently implementing an entrepreneurial mentorship programme through the Botswana Innovation Hub. “The programme is geared towards grooming young people to become entrepreneurs,” he added.

He said the Ministry of Transport and Communication also has two programmes that were geared towards empowering young people, namely the ICT incubation programme and the roads maintenance projects for companies owned by young people.

The MP for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone had asked the minister to brief Parliament on the issue of graduate unemployment.  He also asked the minister to state the number of the affected and specific strategies in place to address the challenges. ENDS