President assures State will find employment for youths
resident David Granger on Monday shelved assertions made by critics that his Government has gone back on their promise to generate employment, especially for youths. He stated that the Sustainable Livelihood and Entrepreneurial Development Initiative (SLED) is proof that they are doing something good.
President David Granger speaking with a Region Three entrepreneur about his products on display on Monday
The President insisted that the Administration has re-embarked on a strategy to prepare youths for the world of work, highlighting the SLED initiative emphasises the Government’s policy by encouraging entrepreneurship, particularly for the youths.
“It contradicts the criticisms that this Administration has no plan for the unemployed and the underemployed,” he said, while delivering his key note address at the award ceremony for trainees of the SLED initiative at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre. President Granger stated that the SLED initiative re-enforces the Administration’s efforts to harness economic development in communities.
Of recent, the Government, which was put into office via a pro-youth platform with promises of employment of thousands, has come under heavy criticism about its 180 degree turn from its 2015 election manifesto promise.
President Granger himself had announced that creating jobs for people was not the Government’s business, a line which was echoed by Finance Minister Winston Jordan.
“Job seekers should go to the small business place and start a business instead of looking for a job,” Jordan was quoted as saying.
However, the Government took a sudden turn on Monday when Granger declared that if employment; the principal means for people to escape from poverty; is unavailable, then the youths will tumble. “This Administration is committed to generating employment. The pre-independence Administration decried a legacy of youth unemployment,” he noted, stating that there were many attempts by that Government to train young people for the world of work.
He stated that since its election into office, the Administration has funded several youth development projects aimed at generating employment through entre The Administration, he said, in order to reduce unemployment, also launched the billion dollar youth employment programme in the hinterlands, which saw 2000 young people in 106 communities being able to access knowledge and grants for entrepreneurship.
He added that their aim is to establish a youth enterprise network in every town, not only in Linden.
“SLED, the HEYS and the LEN are all part of this administration’s grand strategy to employ young people,” he said, noting that the strategy stands on a bipod of education and entrepreneurship.
He stated that the Government is cognisant that education unlocks opportunities for young people and that employers would often complain that young applicants do no posses the skills to fill vacancies. Therefore, he indicated that it is vital to improve education and training for those who did not do well in their examinations.
He stated that the Central Recruitment and Man Power Agency, which is part of Ministry of Social Protection, registered 3430 job seekers in 2015 and placement was found for 89 per cent of them.
“The State will do all things necessary to find employment for the youths, public service together with the private sector and foreign companies must combine their energies to generate more employment,” he added.
On the other end, Member of Parliament, Irfaan Ali, has stated that based on the Government’s previous stance that they are not accountable for generating employment, it is absolutely clear that they “have no intention of fulfilling its promise to the youth by providing them with better paying jobs that would offer the kind of satisfaction our ministers enjoy from the 50 per cent increase in salary. Instead the coalition government seems to be more interested in deluding the youths again by parroting ‘entrepreneurship’ as the panacea for youth unemployment.”
He said, while one cannot dispute that entrepreneurship may help in reducing unemployment in Guyana, it should be noted that the government is simply loud on the rhetoric but silent with on offering fiscal and other measures to assist entrepreneurs and small businesses.
SLED works by distributing interest-free cash grants to registered groups and associations, needing the economic boost to improve their economic enterprises. SLED also works with non-profit organisations, like the Canadian funded Caribbean Local Economic Development Project (CARILED), to provide training and capacity building to beneficiaries of the grants.
