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According to the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) World Employment and Social Outlook 2016, the global labour market remains troubled, and is likely to worsen in coming years. These prospects are particularly worrisome for the youth, whose unemployment rate reached 13.1 percent in 2016. This translates to an estimated 71 million unemployed youth worldwide. The ILO further estimated that some 156 million employed youth, or 37.7 percent of the working youth, in emerging and developing countries were living in poverty in 2016 (living on less than US$3.10 a day).
The global gender gap is unfortunately also a determinant in youth employability. Global labour market indicators, such as unemployment rates, labour force participation and employment figures, show that wide disparities do exist between young men and women. In 2016, for instance, the labour force participation rate for young men stood at 53.9 percent, while that favouring women was only 37.3 percent, resulting in a gap of 16.6 percentage points. This is a major challenge in Africa. While the unemployment rate of women is lower than that of men in Europe and America, the reverse is the case in Africa, Asia and Arab states.
Regrettably, the world’s highest rate of working poverty people who are employed but earning less than US$2 a day, is in Africa. The continent continues to report the highest youth working poverty rates globally, at about 69.4 percent in 2016. The youth unemployment rate in Africa was around 20 percent in 2016. Despite being Africa’s most educated generation to emerge from schools and universities, a youth in Africa is twice as likely to be unemployed when he/she becomes an adult. The prime challenge for the youth of today is simply the lack of decent job opportunities.
Finding productive jobs for young people is critical to the continent’s future. An educated and skilled population is attractive to many employers and prospective investors. Many employers across Africa have been critical of the lack of basic, technical and transferable skills of graduates from the continent. Others have developed philosophy and management practice that has led to accelerating youth empowerment for sustainable development across Africa.
A classic example of companies that have developed this philosophy and leading pan-African youth employability is iSON Group, one of Africa’s largest IT and ITes companies with presence in 25 countries in Africa. It has over 10,000 employees in Africa where its workforce comprises 99 percent African nationals. As part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility program, it employs youths from marginalized sectors, allowing iSON and its dedicated employees the opportunity to develop its communities through socio economic empowerment and skills development.
In addition to the focus on local employment, iSON is passionate about gender diversity, maintaining a ratio of 48 women in every 100 employed which is exceptional by global standard. The company has high turnover of call centre agents because it is a strenuous job and many people are able to manage only for a short duration. However, the company trains the agents that chose to leave so they can be better equipped for another job in other services industries.
Interestingly, many companies will baulk at the concept of training their staff for future jobs but iSON sees this as a contribution to the African economy. The company has set up three state-of-the-art facilities in three different cities in Nigeria; Ibadan, Abeokuta and Ilorin. Each facility is fully equipped with a functional and contemporary Skill Development Centre for youths.
The centre continues to provide skills trainings for thousands of graduates employed by the organization. iSON can proudly boast of being one of the top generators of employment opportunities and capacity builders of talents across its footprints. Each year, iSON provides a series of rigorous training programs to build and improve the skillset of its workforce. This intensive series targeted at each cadre of its workforce is designed to ensure that skills are fully harnessed, optimized and transferred.
These endeavours by iSON are comforting in the wake of the rapidly growing working age population in Africa. This is a wake-up call for African governments, universities, and employers to collectively take action to boost job creation and employability in the formal and informal sectors. Young people must be prepared for jobs in today’s globalized economy to ensure a smooth transition of graduates into the global labour market. Quality education would yield significant benefits for both African young people and the society, as a whole; better employment opportunities and job prospects, will improve quality of life, and ultimately result in greater economic growth.
INNOCENT NWANI
Innocent Nwani is a communications specialist with Hill + Knowlton Strategies, Lagos
