PM LAUNCHES E5.1M INSIKA YENSHA YEMASWATI PROGRAMME

MPAKA - As government is implementing programmes aimed at fighting youth unemployment and empowering them, it has considered awarding some capital projects to youth-owned entities.

This was revealed by Prime Minister (PM) Cleopas Dlamini during the launch of Eswatini National Youth Council’s (ENYC) Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) programme (Insika Yensha YemaSwati), held at Mpaka Vocational Training Centre yesterday. The programme, which is in its first phase, was supported by the Republic of China (Taiwan) with E5.1 million.

Consider

The PM said they would consider awarding some capital projects to companies or organisations which belonged to the youth. For example, he said for a fencing tender, not much expertise was needed and it could be easy to only consider companies that were owned by the youth. Another project which the premier used as an example was that of the rehabilitation of government structures and said in such work, businesses owned by the youth could do it.

He said they could do this by having a list of youth-owned contractors or businesses and register them to be considered for certain government capital projects. It is worth noting that the PM’s statements could be termed as a direct response to the youth’s call upon government to consider empowering them after their vocational studies.

The youth said this through the voice of Mpaka Vocational Training Centre’s representative Sizolwethu Maphanga, who said they acknowledged government’s effort in opening opportunities for them. She said government’s decentralisation policy came in handy with this project as it sought to empower the youth in their safe spaces.

She said this would ensure comprehensive skills development were all and around Eswatini, which was something that would position the youth to sell its expertise to community members, business community and to government through capital projects and other community development programmes.

She pleaded with government, in particular the PM, that for all capital projects, they should set aside specific funds for these skilled youth to participate in the economy in order to polarise the high expectations from central government and participate in the economy. She said if they (skilled youth) participate in the economy; it would mean they would have the ability to raise their own funds to start businesses and other revenue streams to sustain their livelihoods.

Again, she appealed to government to speed up the Youth Bill in order for organisations such as the ENYC to regulate the implementation of all youth organisations by curbing silo implementation and thereby concentrating resources on similar developmental programmes. On another note, the representative of the youth informed the PM that in this day and age, a lot of young people did not get the opportunity to thrive through the normal education system, which meant that it was either they had no job opportunities or what they had trained for did not align to industry requirements. She noted that different organisations, just like government and other bilateral partners, had seized the opportunity to avail to young people through the TVET such programmes.

She said the significance of TVET was to open up the entrepreneurial space for livelihood purposes and this gave them as young people the opportunity to explore diverse options to pursue their life goals. She said the programme would equip them with the technical and professional skills they needed in order to begin to meaningfully contribute in addressing the socio-economic and industrial development challenges faced by the country.

Promulgate

“This programme seeks to promulgate the drive, power, resources and willingness in the youth to make a difference in the country, by opening other opportunities for the youth, reducing the dreadful curve of unemployment and building a web to interlink different industries in the kingdom,” she said.

Therefore, she said if they explored the two most world agendas; Sustainable Development Goals of 2030 and Agenda 2063; one of the demands made by Agenda 2063 was that Africa should invest in skills, science, technology, engineering and mathematics so that young people could provide innovation, sustainable solutions in order to drive Africa to First World status as per the vision of the King and Ingwenyama of Eswatini.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: