09 Jul 2017

Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central, Dr Phenyo Butale has tabled a motion calling for government to establish a national employment agency to spearhead job creation and ensure alignment of education with the needs of the economy.

Dr Butale said despite Botswana having for years been classified as a middle-income country, unemployment had been one of the issues in which success had remained illusive.

He said Botswana’s education system had also for years now been criticised for producing graduates whose skills were not in sync with the needs of the job market. 

The situation, he said, had in a way contributed to the high levels of unemployment facing in particular the youth, some of whom he noted were university graduates.Dr Butale thus said the employment agency would help by among others, enhancing the employability of the country’s young people; in the process also helping plug the skills gap, which he said was at the moment way too wide.

The MP added that the agency would also help prepare graduates for the world of work, and would also come in handy in matching employers with potential employees.

He said the high unemployment rate, which he said stood at 20 per cent, had become synonymous with high poverty rates as well as huge income disparities.

Debating the proposition, Minister Tshenolo Mabeo of the Ministry of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development said his newly-established ministry had been tasked with setting up an employment bureau.

Mr Mabeo, who is also MP for Thamaga-Kumakwane, said the process of establishing the bureau had begun.

He said one of the things that the bureau would be responsible for was skills matching; adding that it would also be responsible for fast-tracking the country’s human capital development; as well as monitoring skills transfer from non-citizens to Batswana.

Minister Mabeo said it was the ministry’s desire to see the bureau functional before the end of the current financial year.

Debate on the motion is set to continue as Parliament adjourned before its completion. ENDS