A youth employability services (YES) center addresses the need of young Ethiopians who migrate to different regions of the country and other countries in search of employment and livelihood.
BAHIR DAR (ILO News) A youth employability services (YES) center, a first for Ethiopia starts to avail information to young Ethiopians on employment opportunities.
The YES center, which was officially opened in Bahir Dar on the 9th of June 2018 is a joint initiative between the Government of Ethiopia and International Labor Organization (ILO) under the project ‘Stemming Irregular migration in Northern and Central Ethiopia’ (SINCE) implemented by the Italian Embassy in Ethiopia and funded by the European Union Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa. The YES Center is being operationalized in collaboration with the Amhara Regional Bureaus of Finance and Economic Development, Labor and Social Affairs, Technical, Vocational and Educational and Development and Youth and Sports.
The YES center, will be a source of information on employment opportunities and labor market demands for the unemployed youth, university and TVET graduates, and potential migrants will benefit from this Center.
Mr. George Okutho, Director of ILO Addis explained the rationale behind establishing a youth center, “Young Ethiopians often migrate from rural to urban areas and onward to outside the country, in search for employment and livelihoods, in particular to the Middle East countries and Europe. In response to this problem, the Government of Ethiopia, with technical support from the ILO has established the YES Center in Bahir Dar.”
Mr. Okutho appreciated the generous support of the European Union and Italy in the initiation of this project. He assured of ILO’s commitment to support the Center in developing a range of employment services for job seekers.
Mr. Pierpaolo Bergamini, SINCE Program Coordinator of the Embassy of Italy stated: “The inauguration of the Youth Employability Services (YES) center in Bahir Dar is an important pilot initiative that aims to improve and give more effectiveness to the Public Employment Services (PES). The youth will take advantage of a public service that actively engages companies and which will facilitate the search for employment for the young generation”.
Mr Belay Zeleke, Deputy Manager, Bureau of Technical, Vocational, Enterprise and Development, Amhara Region expressed his hope that the center will provide better services for the youth to access job vacancies easily. “So far our office, in collaboration with ILO, will ensure that the center is well equipped with the necessary personnel as well as equipment in order to facilitate the services provided by the center.”
The main activities of the youth employability services center will be:-
- Job placement;
- Career guidance and job placement for unemployed;
- Referral and information center for the various services and programs of the Bureau of Labor and Social Affairs, Polytechnic and Vocational colleges.
Elena Ruiz Roman, EU-EUTF program manager, further said that, “This is an exciting time, as the SINCE project reaches one of its milestones with the opening of the first YES center in the country. Finding a job in Ethiopia is a time-consuming and an expensive business for the majority of people, due to the lack of appropriate centers. The YES is designed to provide, among others, job counseling assistance, training, access to labor market information and skills, skills needed among young Ethiopians to find, secure and maintain meaningful and decent employment.”
Background
According to the Youth Development Index, Ethiopia stood at 0.55 in 2015 with a rank of 131 out of 183 countries placing it in the medium range. The existing situation regarding youth population presents both a challenge and an opportunity, whereby 71% of the Ethiopian population is under the age of 30. The unemployment numbers according to the 2013 CSA’s National labor force survey, show that the overall National unemployment rate stood at 4.5%. Studies indicate that there are approximately three million young Ethiopians entering the labor force every year.
International Labor Organization (ILO) is implementing the project “Addressing the root causes of migration in Ethiopia” to strengthen the provision of national employment services with emphasis on youth employment to aid the young potential migrants in making informed choices about their migration often carried out through irregular channel.
Source: ILO