Workshop highlights unemployment

 UNEMPLOYMENT was the sticking issue on the first day of the National Youth Commission workshop yesterday.

The two-day workshop, is a follow up from a two-day symposium in Madang last year.

Acting National Youth Commissioner Norit Luio said youths and stakeholders should look for ways to address issues and reduce unemployment.

“Like other developing nations, PNG is confronted by enormous challenges,” he said. 

“Among the critical challenges we face are those affecting our youths, and in particular, the increase in youth employment. Yet more challenging is our struggle in search of a way forward to effectively address it.”

“Let me kindly remind you that there are no more urgent tasks to do than to work out a strategy to diffuse the ‘time bomb’ we are sitting on as most refer to our youths.”

 Luio outlined the six key areas which the commission had derived with a communiqué from the Madang symposium. These are:

• Strategic framework for youths employment;
• Institutional capacity building-adequate resourcing, relevant training;
• Knowledge and skills development, compulsory education and skills training;
• Informal sector economy-youth enterprising SME;
• Information and data management – more youth-related research work needed; and
• Partnership approach – collaboration and networking.

Luio  said the acquisition of skills and knowledge would play a pivotal role in linking the youths as Papua New Guinea was in dire need to arrive at a literate population level by 2050.

He said the implementation of the government’s universal education policy would enable the commission to achieve these six key areas.

Luio appealed to stakeholders to work together and look for ways to solve the problem of youth unemployment in the country.