Youth should be absorbed into public service
From left: Job Maina, Lovejoy Odongo, James Kioko and Mercy Wambui.
What you need to know:
- It is prudent that governments absorb young people trained through internship into their agencies and departments.
- In this way, countries in Africa will ensure continuity in their public services, while also being seen as an equal employer for the thousands of desperate graduates that are leaving training institutions every year to join crowded job markets.
Public service in Africa needs renewal, and one way to do this is to institute internships as a pathway for young people, and retain them after training.
It is prudent that governments absorb young people trained through internship into their agencies and departments.
In this way, countries in Africa will ensure continuity in their public services, while also being seen as an equal employer for the thousands of desperate graduates that are leaving training institutions every year to join crowded job markets.
Governments should design internship programmes to offer opportunities for young college graduates to acquire and develop professional skills while gaining work experience.
Ignoring participation of the youth in public service and governance is not only bad for the youth, but is also a tragedy for a country seeking to develop such as ours. Youth in Africa have demonstrated huge potential; they have fresh ideas and immense energies—in essence, the country’s young population is full of creativity.
Youth account for 60 per cent of all Africa’s unemployed population, according to the World Bank. This calls for measures to confront the challenge of joblessness.
Africa’s growing youth population comes with high energy, creativity and talents that are “also the key to future prosperity”. It now depends on whether African governments can grab the unemployment bull by the horns.
A report titled Greater Inclusion of African Youth in Public Service and Governance, which was developed as part of a partnership between the African Leadership Institute and African Union Office of the Youth Envoy, calls for the development of an enabling environment to prepare and absorb youth into the public service. Going by the report, the need to absorb youth into the public service is imperative.
Most government ministries in Africa suffer a shortfall in skilled human resources. Most offices are crippled, or record low levels of productivity as the majority of employees are over the age of 50 and lack modern skills. Retaining trained interns will, therefore, help bridge this gap.
Interns will have hands-on experience in tasks that are performed in various government offices. Retaining them will make service delivery efficient and cost effective.
It will be easy for the interns to take up duties without the State spending huge sums of money on training new employees.
Youth are also tech-savvy and well suited to drive efficient and effective service delivery through technology.
Absorption of youth into public service will serve to show that the government is committed to supporting the youth and keeping their promises.
The public service sector is crucial to building the Africa We Want. Policies, legislations and laws should be geared towards mainstreaming the inclusion and involvement of young people.
Africa, should recognise the importance of having youth participating in national development, and the importance of partnering with the youth for a responsive and sustainable public service.
Mr Obonyo is a policy analyst. raphojuma@hotmail.com.