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EDITORIAL - Unemployed and unemployable
published: Thursday | October 4, 2007
The significant number of young Jamaican men who are unemployed and/or lacking the needed skills for the marketplace, at some point, will have to ditch the false pride that is getting them nowhere and begin to assume greater responsibility for themselves and their families.
We make these observations against the background of our lead story in yesterday's edition which had two main points. First, there was a crush of men who turned up at the Ministry of Labour hoping to be recruited for construction jobs in Canada. Clearly, there is a large number of men who want to work. No doubt, the incentive of following in the tradition of farm workers hired for jobs in the United States and Canada who have generally done well for themselves would have enticed a great number of them to turn up at the ministry hoping to be recruited.
Second, many of them did not stand a chance because they were either illiterate or uncertified. This is but a glaring manifestation of the problem that has been raised and discussed in various forums across the country over the past few years.
Skills training centres and programmes abound but are not being utilised sufficiently by young men. What needs to be addressed then is the lack of will and motivation by many young men to take advantage of existing opportunities. Generally, boys are not performing as well as girls at the primary and secondary levels. As more mature teenagers or young adults, they do not advance to higher education and the percentage who go back to school to acquire what they should have obtained at the secondary level is equally low.
This crisis of underperformance plaguing our male population is as much self-inflicted as it is a by-product of societal dysfunction. We are in a vicious cycle. Boys who skip classes or who waste most of their time in school rarely settle down later in life to the methodical plodding that academic or skills training requires that would put them in better positions to improve their lot. Several studies have been done suggesting that teaching methods may be alienating boys and fuelling their underperformance. Others suggest that young adult males are seeking instant gratification and are not prepared to work hard over long periods to get the material things which they desire.
Whatever the cause or causes, the implications for the stability of the society are frightening. This army of unemployed and unemployable young men make them easy recruits for gangs, narcotics trading rings and other forms of crime.
While there are also implications for the political process, this is not a problem for politicians alone to tackle. More of our civic organisations will have to get involved, with support from private businesses, to address this problem. Ways have to be found to get inside the head of these young men to challenge them about how they see life and their expectations.
Old boys' associations allied to secondary schools should consider widening their involvement beyond sports to invest time and finances in training younger men before they leave the formal school system. A collective response is needed, but young men need to embrace the existing opportunities to help themselves
.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
published: Thursday | October 4, 2007
The significant number of young Jamaican men who are unemployed and/or lacking the needed skills for the marketplace, at some point, will have to ditch the false pride that is getting them nowhere and begin to assume greater responsibility for themselves and their families.
We make these observations against the background of our lead story in yesterday's edition which had two main points. First, there was a crush of men who turned up at the Ministry of Labour hoping to be recruited for construction jobs in Canada. Clearly, there is a large number of men who want to work. No doubt, the incentive of following in the tradition of farm workers hired for jobs in the United States and Canada who have generally done well for themselves would have enticed a great number of them to turn up at the ministry hoping to be recruited.
Second, many of them did not stand a chance because they were either illiterate or uncertified. This is but a glaring manifestation of the problem that has been raised and discussed in various forums across the country over the past few years.
Skills training centres and programmes abound but are not being utilised sufficiently by young men. What needs to be addressed then is the lack of will and motivation by many young men to take advantage of existing opportunities. Generally, boys are not performing as well as girls at the primary and secondary levels. As more mature teenagers or young adults, they do not advance to higher education and the percentage who go back to school to acquire what they should have obtained at the secondary level is equally low.
This crisis of underperformance plaguing our male population is as much self-inflicted as it is a by-product of societal dysfunction. We are in a vicious cycle. Boys who skip classes or who waste most of their time in school rarely settle down later in life to the methodical plodding that academic or skills training requires that would put them in better positions to improve their lot. Several studies have been done suggesting that teaching methods may be alienating boys and fuelling their underperformance. Others suggest that young adult males are seeking instant gratification and are not prepared to work hard over long periods to get the material things which they desire.
Whatever the cause or causes, the implications for the stability of the society are frightening. This army of unemployed and unemployable young men make them easy recruits for gangs, narcotics trading rings and other forms of crime.
While there are also implications for the political process, this is not a problem for politicians alone to tackle. More of our civic organisations will have to get involved, with support from private businesses, to address this problem. Ways have to be found to get inside the head of these young men to challenge them about how they see life and their expectations.
Old boys' associations allied to secondary schools should consider widening their involvement beyond sports to invest time and finances in training younger men before they leave the formal school system. A collective response is needed, but young men need to embrace the existing opportunities to help themselves
.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
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