Unemployment rates are higher in urban than rural areas (16.5 percent and 7.5 percent respectively), excluding Dar es Salaam with a staggering unemployment rate of 31.5 percent.
Youth unemployment in urban areas is 13.4 per cent compared to the national level of 11.7 percent. Women are more affected, with their unemployment rate put at 13 percent compared 10 percent for men.
There is a wide gap between the rate at which the labour force is growing and the rate at which the economy is generated in the formal economy is 30,000 per year. This implies that the private sector, including the informal economy, has to absorb the remaining 670,000 job seekers each year.
Not only do youth display higher rates of unemployment than adults, but they also appear to be more sensitive to changes in the economy. Disadvantaged youth, in particular, appear to bear a disproportionate share of the cost of economic downturns or weak labour demand.
Extreme vulnerability of youth in the labour market has been attributed to their low level of job-related skills and experience, capital and entrepreneurial skills.
Speaking during the launch of Youth ICT Empowerment Project in Dar es Salaam recently, Tanzania Youth Alliance country director Peter Masika said through the project unemployed students and graduates will be empowered with profession-specific ICT and life skills for employability, and entrepreneurial skills that respond to the demands of the current economic situation.
He said as part of the project TAYOA has established ICT learning centres and multimedia laboratory in Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro, supported with mobile computer booths and online vijana.com portal.
Masika noted that the learning centres” operations and the web portal will build on the collaboration between existing and new relationships with private, public, and non-profit sector actors/employers, chambers of commerce, the National Agency for Youth Employment, and higher learning institutions among others. Apart from the trainings, the centres host the production of digital learning materials (included in certain profession-specific entrepreneurial training components like media production and graphic design).
He elaborated that the project consists of two key programmatic components: employability/entrepreneurial training and the development of a web portal vijanatz.com where youth can access free educational material and job mediation services.
“The programme will prepare youth to enter the workforce by instilling habits, attitudes, and skills such as self-reliance, self-confidence, a spirit of initiative, effective communication, decision-making, problem-solving and job search techniques. The training is carried out by computer-based self-learning.
The learning centre “straining supervisors will supervise the youth and help them with queries. In addition to the computer-based course the training includes group work and discussions as well as individual coaching and mentoring sessions, which allows personal interaction with fellow students and professionals.
“We’ll be recruiting youth participants who will be selected based on their needs, level of motivation, and qualifications, as determined through the physical and online application and interview process. Based on their interest and motivation, selected youth will participate in either the employability training programme or the entrepreneurship programme,” he said.
After recruitment, participants in the employability training programme will receive training in life skills, ICT and job search techniques as well as assistance in finding internship placements in local businesses, state and local government offices, and organizations.
Participants will also have an option to receive 20 hours of training and 15 hours of individual follow-up and coaching. Following completion of training, the beneficiaries are counselled and mentored and then placed in a volunteer-programme and observed by a volunteer’s supervisor over a period of 8 to 15 weeks.
Following completion of the programme, participants will be assisted with placement in formal jobs, internships, or self-employment,” he said.
The TAYOA country director further elaborated that, Vijanatz.com portal has eight components. We are starting with only two components; Vijanajobs and learning component.
“The online portal for youth is an avenue for youth to upload their profile and CVs to be viewed by potential employers and employers can post available opportunities within their organization,” he said.
He said the free service will also encourage verification and recommendation by previous employers or other referees adding that Information on successful completion of employability training and history of internship or volunteerism will be traced and updated frequently, to enable candidates to market their skills.
The portal also has an education component, where educational material (Online Educational portal) can be downloaded are being uploaded in both audio and video file.
“Ultimately, this information will be available not only through this webside, but also through mobile phones. This material will be made easily accessible through low-cost mobiles devices with the help of NOKIA Educational delivery application.
The digital educational material is envisaged to tremendously increase the disadvantaged youth’s possibilities to complete their secondary education.
“To start with, both the training programmes will provide training in life skills, ICT, and job search techniques direct to 900 young people and over 300,000 through online portal in the duration of the project. Depending on the chosen training, young people will be assisted in finding job/internship placements to gain professional experience or alternatively given guidance in starting up their own businesses,” he said.
The Minister for Communication, Science and Technology Prof Makame Mbarawa, who was the guest of honour in the event, said the Youth ICT Project designed to improve the employability of disadvantaged African youth and contribute to non-income poverty reduction will enhance the national efforts to reduce poverty and improve livelihood.
“In that regard I wish to thank Finnish friends and development partners, whom I am informed, had joined hands with NOKIA to support the inception and implementation of this project. This move is yet another proof of their willingness and dedication in supporting our country’s development effort,” he said.
“It is also an avenue for us and TAYOA to learn and document lessons on the use of ICT in addressing Nation’s challenges through online portal and computer based training which eventually, will contribute to the improvement of our ICT learning curricula. We hope that this project will provide a unique opportunity for the Tanzanian youth so as to drive the ICT content development in Tanzania,” he added.
Prof Makame said his ministry and TAYOA has a solid relationship. He said in October 2009, the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology (MCST) and Tanzania Youth Alliance (TAYOA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) where the two parts agreed to collaborate in number of issues.
“We agreed to collaborate on national Telecommunication 117 Health toll free Helpline and free short message services (SMS) on HIV and AIDS.
The helpline has been implemented with support of Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA), Telecommunication companies (Vodacom, Airtel, TIGO, Zantel and TTCL). And the free SMS arrangement is ongoing.
National e-Education, e-jobs, e-Microfinance, e-entrepreneurship, e-governance e-Parliament, e-Community Information and e-Health platform are to enhance ICT Education to youth in and out of schools.
TAYOA has developed the Vijanatz portal with support of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NOKIA, this will continue to enhance competencies in using ICTs for education, as well as for ICT enabled growth,” he said
He said establishment of National Vijanatz Youth ICT Centre will increase access of Information Communication Technology for rural and urban youth.
The Finnish Ambassador to Tanzania Johani Joivonen said his country was proud to support the project due to the excellent relationship with Tanzania and TAYOA stressing that the project was very important for youth.
“Let me reaffirm my country’s commitment to work with Tanzania. As few of you might know, Tanzania is Finland’s longest standing partner in development cooperation. The development cooperation between Finland and Tanzania started officially in 1962, when Finland joined the Nordic Tanganyika Project. Today Tanzania is one of Finland’s eight long-term development partner countries and amongst the main receivers of aid.
We are working with TAYOA, for more than 12 years now and we continue work with Tanzania in priority areas such as forestry and environment, agriculture, and bio-energy, regional and local development, budget support, infrastructure focusing on energy, and 5) innovation and technology (ICT).Finnish bilateral development aid to Tanzania totaled at 34 million euros in the year 2010,” he said
The ambassador called upon TAYOA and other stakeholders to move forward in developing local content, particularly addressing the need for science, maths and language. He said such contents in form of digital materials available in web portals such as vijanatz.com, will improve service delivery through the use of mobile technology through seamless integration and increased information sharing attitudes in online social networks such as blogs, online forums and discussion groups.
The project is sponsored by Finnish Foreign Ministry, the Finnish embassy in Tanzania, Nokia and Finish Children and Youth Foundation.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Joseph Mwendapole
Quelle/Source: IPPmedia, 23.06.2011
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