President urges unemployed youths to become entrepreneurs

A one-day youth conference was on Friday hosted at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre with the aim of implementing policies to help young people from across the country.

The event saw attendance of youths between the ages of 14 and 35, who came out with the intent of voicing their concerns.
They were encouraged by youth leaders to use social media to attract the attention of policy makers.
Speaking to the youths, Director of Youth, Melissa Carmichael, explained to the gathering that young people are important to nation building. According to her, young people account for some 74 per cent of Guyana’s population.
She explained, “At the beginning of 2012, the world population surpassed seven billion, with people under the age of 30 accounting for more than half of this number, 50.5 per cent. Then there were 1.2 billion youths aged 15 to 24 years, globally in 2015, accounting for one out of every six people worldwide. By 2030…the number of youths is projected to (grow) by seven per cent to nearly 1.3 billion”.
Carmichael said she hopes the data shared paints a vivid picture that youths are not only demographically significant, but are essential to the world’s human resource.
Delivering the feature address, President David Granger said he recognises that employment is one of the major issues faced by youths, hence efforts have been exhausted to ensure children are educated.
“So unemployment in years to come should be a thing of the past. We should be able to eliminate (it) once we go to school and stay in school and don’t drop out. Once we drop out, unfortunately the chances of being employed become very remote,” the president said.
The Head of State urged the youths to become entrepreneurs, and not allow unemployment to keep them down.
Youths were also treated to a mini exhibition at the conference, which featured robotics and science.
The first such youth conference was hosted last year. Even as Government is encouraging youth development and participation in society, its cabinet consists mainly of persons over the age of 35.
In Guyana, youth unemployment among the 15-to-24-year-old cohort is at 21.6 per cent, representing almost twice the unemployment rate of other adults.
Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram last month blasted Government for being unable to effectively address Guyana’s unemployment rate.
In an interview with this publication, Ram had expressed the belief that not enough attention is being paid to the economic and social side of unemployment.