11 Jul 2016

Director of the Department of National Service and Internship, Ms Tshenolo Omphitlhetse has implored the youth engaged in various programmes to explore survival options to lean on upon completion of their term with the department.

The department oversees popular youth programmes such as Graduate Volunteer Scheme, Botswana National Service Programme (TS) and Internship programme. 

Speaking at a one-day workshop organised to get feedback from the youth engaged in the programmes as well as their host departments, Ms Omphitlhetse said  it would be impossible to expect government to create employment for all of them, looking at the fact that the youth make up about 60 per cent of the total national population.

“It is therefore vital for you to start standing up for yourselves and look at ways to make a living such as applying for grants to start businesses. You have an advantage over others who are not engaged in these youth initiative programmes because you have information on how to apply for grants to start businesses,” she said.

Ms Omphitlhetse said the situation of market saturation is made even worse by the fact that then world has turned into a global village, meaning that the local job market is competed for by not only the locals, but foreigners as well. She said the situation is evident in that even youth with high academic qualifications still roam the streets in search of employment. She also revealed that since its inception, the internship programme has only managed to absorb 4 800 youths into permanent posts, while about 7 000 are still on the waiting list to join.

She therefore advised those who have already been engaged under the various programmes to consider themselves lucky and utilise their chances to their benefit, such as being productive and displaying good conduct at work to impress their hosts.

“We are concerned by reports of poor behavior from some of you, especially those under the TS programme who reportedly have a tendency of absconding from work and knocking off before hours. Such behaviours will work against you as they will jeopardise your chances of being absorbed permanently by your host departments,” she advised.

Ms Omphitlhetse therefore said that it is upon the youth to build a good image of themselves to impress their host departments and give the programmes a good name.

She said good behavior and hard work might even influence government to give them priority over those in the waiting list at the Directorate of Public Service Management.

For their part, the participants raised complaints such as reluctance of their hosts to engage them on official trips and payment of overtime although they work long hours.

One of the participants, Ms Nonofo Kepaletswe complained of instances where they are engaged by departments only to discover that such departments have no officer of similar qualifications as them whom they can lean on for job experience. She said this then means they will exit the programme without any experience, which is contrary to its objectives.

In response, the Programmes Officer., Ms Mavis Ofentse said issues of official trips and overtime are still being discussed with departments, saying most of the time the challenge is that departments indicate that they did not budget for them. She however, warned that even after the matter is resolved the youth will not be able to go on just any trip as some require only permanent officers.

Ms Omphitlhetse added that the youth are legible for compensation when they get injured when on line of duty under the Workers Compensation Act just like any other employee. She said the issue of an appropriate officer to give the youth experience is one of those that are still being ironed out between her department and host departments.

In her closing remarks, Programmes Officer for Letlhakeng, Ms Oakantse Matjologwe appreciated the director’s tour of their area, saying such visits are vital as they will help them as programmes officers in ensuring that the initiative does not derail.

She also appreciated the youth participants for the diligent work they continue to display at host departments. ENDS