Parkop keen to help youths find fulltime employment

By PETER ESILA
National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop wants to see more youths get fulltime employment after going through the Urban Youth Employment Project (UYEP) in Port Moresby.
“Give them skills to make them more employable,” he said yesterday during a presentation by the UYEP management to the programme’s stakeholders, including the Government and NCDC.
Parkop said after the project started five years ago, there should be some results to show that the project was getting confidence from stakeholders and that the youths were getting the necessary skills to help them get jobs as well as life skills.
Since the project’s inception in 2012, more than 16,000 youths have had basic life skills training.
UYEP project manager Tom Gilis said UYEP was about providing temporary employment and up-skilling of youths in providing basic life skills training, a public works programme, pre-employment training and on- job training.
“We have to continue with the basic life skills training because that is where our emphasis is.”
Gilis said the programme was all about giving the youths a second chance and introducing them to the employment culture.
“The UYEP concept provided a unique response to a complex social and economic problem as poverty and the marginalisation of youth continues to be a problem in PNG.”
Gilis said the UYEP was a pilot human development project of the government funded by the World Bank under a concessional loan and implemented by NCDC.