Creating Youth Employment – Part II

Aug 02, 2015 News

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By Lance Hinds
The development of significant, sustainable youth employment, using ICT, has to be done with the goal of creating short- to medium-term jobs, in conjunction with the capacity building to develop the long-term employment needed for the growth of the sector as a significant contributor to the national economy.

The first objective, therefore, is to introduce a localised version of crowdsourcing and microwork that does not require extensive training. Crowdsourcing is a process that involves outsourcing tasks or larger projects to a distributed group of people. This can occur both online and offline. Microwork, by the strictest definition, is a series of tasks that have been broken out of a larger business process or project that can be completed via the internet.
There will be some modifications to the overall concept because of what I am proposing, but once properly conceived and defined, it can generate significant employment over the short- to medium-term. To be clear, when I state that there is no need for extensive training, I am referring to data processing, programming, software/app development etc. Within this context, the other skills would be considered entry to medium level.
In this vein, I am suggesting that the Government launch a programme I would like to call the Electronic Records Conversation Initiative or ERCI for short. This would be, at minimum, a five-year youth employment programme focusing specifically on the electronic conversation of the voluminous amount of files currently in use in all the Government Agencies.
The primary justification for this project is that while a significant amount of work has been done in implementing financial and other specialized systems in many of the government agencies, poor records management continues to cause serious challenges in the majority of agencies within the public sector. These challenges range from technology obsolescence and poorly trained personnel, to inadequate policy formulation. The files are also in many instances stored in poor conditions leading to damage.
In fact it has been argued that the primary argument for conversion to electronic records is the need to simply protect records in the first instance. This has, on many occasions, negatively affected prompt services and employment practices, revamping of government functions and organizational structures, strengthening of financial management, and a national legal and regulatory framework.
In the absence of a culture of effective records management, monitoring and evaluation, quality control and verification has been extremely difficult. It is imperative, therefore, for the government to adopt good record-keeping practices, since they will support effective and accountable government. Accessible, reliable records will show what decisions were made, actions taken, people involved and the rights and responsibilities that exist or should be applied. Adopting integrated electronic information systems with the appropriate policy and implementation framework will go a long way in effectively managing records in government.
The first tasks under the ERCI, therefore, would be the electronic capture of the hard copy documents in existence. This will require a series of tasks including scanning, data entry and the creation of metadata for electronic document management. Teams, primarily made up of young people, can be quickly trained to sort and scan files and related documents from agency registries, using the appropriate equipment.
Data entry for the ledgers and registers used to record information can be done either on site or by trained youth groups in various geographic locations via an internet connection. The Government can explore the possibility of using the e-government communication network to save cost on internet access.
There is a tremendous amount of work required to ‘tag’ electronic records with metadata, so as to ensure that they are adequately catalogued, classified and easily retrieved. This also can be done on site or remotely via an internet connection.
There are other components to this kind of project. The activities described above, however, can be done by young people with a minimum amount of training. Internet access will allow for work to be performed remotely by youth residing outside of Georgetown.
Specific assignments related to this activity can be coordinated by national and community youth groups as part of an overall capacity-building exercise. On the policy side, companies bidding for provision of services should also be evaluated based on the amount of youths they plan to hire and the communities with whom they plan to partner. The vision is a true private sector/community collaboration.
I believe this kind of project is attractive for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it has youth appeal because it is ICT and therefore perceived to be cutting edge. Secondly, although the project is performance and deliverable-driven, it does not have the traditional office structure that many young people find restrictive and unappealing. More importantly, it has the potential to create a high level of employment in a relatively short space of time. Its startup and running costs are far lower than the major infrastructure works that are normally used to jump start sections of an economy.
Apart from job creation there are other economic benefits. Local ICT businesses will get revenue from the supply of computer hardware and peripheral devices. There will be need for some advanced services pertaining to the modification and implementation of electronic document management systems. These can be provided by local ICT consulting firms. Some of the youth who are specially trained can also participate in this component of the project.
Last, but certainly not least, this is a transformational project that can radically change the government’s data management and related processes. It is also the starting point for the provision of e-government to our citizens.
This is just a sketch of what is possible in terms of a potential project that can generate employment. It will be necessary to develop a well-thought-out project implementation framework that is realistic, practical and achievable. I hope, however, that this idea triggers the kind of out–of–the–box thinking that will be needed to help an economy that has many challenges over the short to medium term.

Lance Hinds is the current President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of the BrainStreet Group, an ICT consulting and information services company.

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