Pancras Kafonogo Mayengo

Preparing for Work That Doesn't Yet Exist Pancras Kafonogo Mayengo

Youth unemployability and skills mismatch is an eminent problem for our nations to thrive and maintain public peace and order. While different authors propose to eradicate the problem through current education system and internships and apprenticeships mechanisms; We differ on these grounds: (i) The current university education system is not equipped to provide skills to facilitate transition from education to work because it was not designed for imparting skills or competence but knowledge.(ii) Internships and apprenticeship opportunities cannot be able to absorb all graduates, unless these mechanisms turn into training institutions themselves.(iii) Many of the interventions focus on the supply side, not on the demand side. We propose ways in which the education system can be revamped to produce university graduates with the capacity to create their own demand.(iv) The world of work is changing very fast due to exponential changes in technology. It is possible for most current companies to get closed down soon because of technological advances. At the same time, new work will emerge to interface humans with automation. If youngsters do not have the relevant skills to thrive in this new life, they will be mismatched and unemployed which will exacerbate the problem further