Latest update September 3rd, 2026 10:25 AM
Youth unemployment: Is it a guessing game?
DEAR EDITOR,
Last Saturday’s column by Peeping Tom titled: “Youth Unemployment is a guessing game” caught my attention, because it resonated with some challenges we are addressing at the Board of Industrial Training; it also reminded me of a widespread survey on Youth Unemployment reported in a publication of my professional body, the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, from which the following conclusions, among others, can be drawn:
• There is an apparent paradox of youth unemployment co-existing surprisingly alongside the phenomenon of employers struggling to find the right numbers and kinds of employees they require. This mismatch presents obvious challenges for top management and their Human Resource professionals.
• The business case for investment in the development of relevant and sufficient skills and competences for a changing, dynamic and expanding economy is quite clear; it demands concerted action (as the Asian ‘tigers’ led by Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia etc., have demonstrated).
• Skills development per se is not enough, especially in a society that suffers from a debilitating deficiency of ‘work ethic’, exacerbated by the overseas ‘barrel’ or ‘Western Union’ syndrome.
• The all-important Attitude leg must always complement the Knowledge and Skills legs in the ‘KSA-tripod’ of competency development. In other words, our training programs must give equal, if not greater emphasis on youths’ attitude to and behavior at work, as is done for the development of knowledge and skills.
• Furthermore, it must be noted that many young people are unaware of job opportunities available and/or how to apply, how to write CVs, how to behave at interviews etc. Young people need training and support before and during their transition from learning institutions to the world of work; if that interval is not properly utilized and managed, we risk creating an expanding band of drop-outs, deviants and delinquents.
Nowrang Persaud
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