09 Nov 2015

Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Fedelis Molao has implored graduates not to look at the government to provide them with jobs, but rather to take advantage of available opportunities to become employers.

“Such opportunities do exist through the various government initiatives and programmes,” said Mr Molao, adding that some of them included the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture and CEDA. “You should be able to look outside the border and export your labour,” he said. 

He advised them not to shy away from volunteering their services.

“You should not shy away from volunteering your services in various sectors of the economy. It is through volunteer work that you gain work experience making you more industry ready and in turn competitive as a job seeker and potentially a better entrepreneur,” he said.

He said the students were graduating at an opportune time when most of the areas that they were graduating from were being covered through the soon to be released Economic Stimulus Programme. He also encouraged the students to be ready so that they could participate and not be left out as spectators  

“This graduation is happening at a time when the country is making efforts to deal with the problem of unemployment particularly amongst the youth due to challenges relating to job skills mismatches across the various sectors.” However, he said there were a number of initiatives that the ministry has embarked on to address the challenge.

Mr Molao said the ministry has launched the Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan (ETSSP).

“This is a five-year strategy that among its key objectives aims to develop partnerships with stakeholders to address issues of relevance and equitable access in our education and training sector,” he said.

He lamented that Target 20 000, which is about upskilling and upscaling the youth, in the provision of skills training intends to impart hands-on practical training to post secondary school youth who were currently adding to the economically inactive members of society and economically statistics.

“With the competencies acquired through Target 20 000, the youth should be in a better position to participate meaningfully in the economy. This includes being a competent work force, but most importantly having the ability to create employment for their peers as entrepreneurs in their own right,” he said.

He said he was informed by the chairperson of council that ABM University College has the capacity, in terms of both the infrastructure and human resources, to be part of the nation’s transformation agenda, which was the cause that the institution ensures design of programmes that meet and exceed stakeholder needs.

He also said that he was informed that the university has continued to invest in tertiary education having started in 1989, and that plans were on the cards to expand its Gaborone and Francistown campuses and that the institution has also embarked on other new satellite campuses including Masunga and Gaphatswa.

He advised the graduates to be aware that learning was a lifelong endeavour, and that the quest for knowledge must continue to burn in their hearts. 

“It has been said a great many a time that knowledge is power and it is a fact that the knowledgeable in society are able to adapt and make it in the ever changing and competitive environment we live today,” he said.  Ends