Students’ Career Development Center (SCDC) of Addis Ababa University (AAU) organized a sensitizing workshop focused on graduate unemployment root-causes in collaboration with Server Global Inc. (SG) at Eshetu Chole Memorial Hall, College of Business and Economics, on the 2^nd of April 2021.

The workshop covered presentation and open discussion of participants which tried to find ways how to provide soft skill trainings and enhance entrepreneurship skills so as to facilitate job opportunities for young graduates of AAU and beyond.

Mr. Tariku Negash, Project Manager at SG, delivered a presentation for seeing factors and effects of graduate unemployment, soft skill training as an approach, what experiences exist and regarding project based interventions.

Based on the presentation, the reasons for youth unemployment include: limited expansion of formal employment opportunities, rapid population growth, rapid rural-urban migration poor quality education which do not meet the requirements of the labor market, a lack of confidence and poor attitudes with regard to youth empowerment.

Tariku said, “The growth in graduate unemployment in Ethiopia could be attributed to the rate of higher education expansion and the lack of curriculum designed to enhance students´ entrepreneurial skills. One solution to this problem is to promote youth entrepreneurship and soft skills training.”

“According to (Master Card Foundation, USIAD, ILO…), soft skill is the mix of skills, attitudes, behaviors, personal qualities and mindsets that individuals use to be successful across different situations in work and life,” Tariku further stated, “Soft skills include: positive self-concept, self-control, communication, social skills, and higher-order thinking (like problem-solving, critical thinking and decision-making).”

Employers are increasingly prioritizing the need for new hires to have soft skills over technical skills focusing on youth who are flexible, adaptable, proactive, creative and collaborative with their ability to work with others, communicate well and solve problems is critical to their success as employers, Tariku added.

As Tariku stated, youth-focused employment mainstreaming strategies are needed to alleviate graduate unemployment problems: improve the quality of education at all levels, enhance the implementation of youth package in a more structured manner; support the creation of quality jobs in both formal and informal sectors; foster entrepreneurships; facilitate youth entry into business and employment intensive initiatives that enhance youth mobility and employment…

SCDC programs are intended for assisting students for self- discovery and exploring, teaching with life skills (like problem solving, communication, decision making, self-awareness…) directly related with increasing employability, incorporating (CV writing, networking, job interview, volunteerism and internship services, entrepreneurship skills, job creation mentality, networking universities with stakeholders…), Tariku finally stated.

Mr. Sebil Alemu, Director of Serve Global Inc., stated on the workshop:

“The case of Ethiopia is of great concern. What we have been seeing so far are signs that this country will not continue as a nation. The situation in Yemen and Syria is likely to happen to ours.

There is high unemployment; young graduates are standing on their toes to do all good and bad, just waiting something provoking. If an incident of a power vacuum happens in the leadership of the country, there will be no one to stop this force.

Serve Global is working hard to find a solution to the problem and identified the very serious issues: youth unemployment, the case of street children and human trafficking which is leading our young girls to allover human abuses in Arab Countries and in border areas as well.

We need to work on strategic economic networks. In some of our institutions, there is a huge accumulation of resources that we have not used properly, or even wasted. Efforts need to be made to use these properly.

Ethiopians who live in exile as Diasporas have strong desire to support their country. Serve Global is here to help them find the right way to handle the support. It facilitates with full accountability that the funds reach properly to the right in need in the country.

We cannot change our country with loans and aid, but we can liberate our people from dependency by boosting our economy. Once we know the source of the problem, we need to make sure that the solutions we come up with are sustainable.”

By: Abraham Girmay

Photo: Serve Global