Archives

Taking on graduate unemployment

It seems highly ironical that scores of young persons claiming to be unemployed graduates, should perform what they describe as a Satyagraha campaign, opposite the Fort Railway Station, while the Government makes the country understand that it is launching a major program to solve the long-festering problem of graduate unemployment.

Although the real motives behind the "sit-in fast" or the identity of the hands orchestrating the protest are yet to be ascertained these continued rumblings from the young for employment should alert the Government to the enormity of the task on its hands.

Graduate unemployment runs into the thousands and given its many dimensions the problem wouldn't prove an easy nut to crack. Nevertheless, the Sarasavi Saviya program of the Government needs to be welcomed on account of its essentially pragmatic approach to resolving the unemployment problem among our graduates.

We have to start somewhere, and Sarasavi Saviya seems to be a reasonably sound basis to make a frontal attack on this problem which has already triggered three youth upheavals in this country - if the Northern insurrection is also considered, among other things, a very violent expression of youth discontent over drastically shrinking avenues of self-advancement. For, identity-based conflicts are aggravated by this factor of dwindling opportunities for material and social progress.

On the face of it, the Sarasavi Saviya program steered by Employment and Labour Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe seems to be a practicable venture. Initially, some 5,000 registered graduates would be provided an opportunity in private sector enterprises to pursue special vocational skills for a period of 12 months. Among other things, they would be afforded the opportunity of learning English and acquiring computer skills.

During this period payments would be made for their upkeep by both the Sarasavi Saviya Institute and the employers concerned.

These basic features of the program would go some distance in meeting the needs of most unemployed graduates in this country. The acquiring of special vocational and language skills would make these young persons employable, for, it is their employability which has emerged as the biggest problem in the graduate unemployment context.

However, we hope that the recruitment of unemployed graduates for this program would not only be expanded but done on an equitable basis, for, an inability to meet the latter condition has caused the collapse of many such ventures in the past. For instance, recruitment procedures should be free of political considerations and other extraneous factors which have nothing to do with a person's inherent suitability for the opportunity. If these preconditions are scrupulously observed the program is likely to prove successful.

The average graduate educated in mainly the national languages, on the other hand, needs to grow out of her or his biases and restricting presuppositions if she or he is to make full use of this opportunity. One such prejudice is a distaste for manual labour and down-to-earth technical skills.

As long as this bias remains, the chances are slim of resolving the problem of the educated unemployed.

It also needs to be realised that the future doesn't belong to pen-pushing bureaucrats and other superfluous white collar workers who cannot find practicable solutions to our material problems.

On the other hand, it belongs to practically -oriented men and women who could take the country into 21st century prosperity and advancement.

www.crescat.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager