31 Jul 2018

Member of Parliament for Serowe North, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse has advised youth to enroll towards re-tooling in order to address unemployment challenges.

He was responding to questions during a kgotla meeting he addressed at Ditlharapa Ward in Serowe recently.

Mr Autlwetse, also Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development said “re-tooling graduates is meant to re-direct their qualifications and ensure that graduates are sent back to school for other studies in order to venture into different fields.”

He therefore urged youth to look for ideas and opportunities for business partnerships because they stood a chance of being re-tooled and up-skilled to enable them to open their own businesses.

Mr Autlwetse said most university graduates were unemployed because they lacked skills required by the labour market and also due to shortage of employment opportunities.

“Government has at this difficult time of finding employment, taken a decision to re-tool graduates, so as to capacitate them to compete in the labor market. In this way, graduates will explore how they can overcome unemployment,” he said

He said, government was looking most importantly at providing entrepreneurship opportunities that would allow unemployed graduates and youth to start small businesses and create jobs for others.

The legislator said the move would enable youth to stay focused and concentrate on training for needed manpower to accelerate development.

He encouraged them to develop interest in farming for its potential to create job opportunities.

Mr Autlwetse also implored youth to take advantage of value chain opportunities, through buying harvest at favorable or subsidised bulk pricing, transport agricultural products to market and providing other services to farmers.

“We cannot all be farmers, some of us can venture into other processes such as of providing service to farmers,. It is therefore crucial that we develop the love for such businesses. Government alone cannot do all,” he said.

Target 20 000 initiative which is being rolled out by the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology and is based on strengthening partnerships with private and public tertiary institutions to ensure skilling of youth is another initiative the MP said youth should explore.

“Target 20 000 is a government strategy aimed at equipping youth at tertiary institutions with industry skills. I would like to urge youth to also take advantage of this initiative since through it, they can acquire skills and upscale themselves to better their chances of finding employment,” he said. ENDS