Even as an entrepreneur,  I have pursued so many vacancies for white collar jobs during these past few weeks. I have applied for so many jobs online and even visited a couple of organizations. The idea for this job search was based on the desire to have a “white collar” job experience. I really do not have a factual number of the organizations that have a copy of my cv but they are indeed quite a large number and surprisingly I haven’t got any positive response. This prompted me to tell a story about the “Generation Jobless”. 

 

The Economist magazine describes the term “Generation  Jobless” as:  “the number of people out of work globally”. It explained further:  the people that are capable to do some work but cannot work because there is no work to be done”. The same magazine also stated that the number of youths out of jobs globally is nearly as large as the population of the United States.  I definitely agree with their definitions and conclusion.  What I don’t understand is why the statistics increase on a daily basis even with the wave of entrepreneurship spreading across the globe and the well polished cv’s of graduates across the globe.

 

At first,  I assumed joblessness for fresh graduates, like me,  was as a result of lack of quality experience and adequate skills needed for the jobs. Then I assumed it was lack of jobs itself, and connections, and grades,  and focus and decision making and readiness to work. I had so many assumptions too until I started applying and got confused about the whole scenario. There are actually jobs.  I see vacancies online, on print, on television,  on posters,  on flyers and so on. Though they are quite few,  but they exist so I assumed that  it was the number of applicants per job that was the problem. 

 

Some articles on youths unemployment conclude that it’s a growth problem. They say that the easiest way to tackle unemployment is to “reignite growth in developing countries” . I believe that it is easier said than done because the so-called developed countries have unemployment challenges too. Other articles conclude that the systems of education should be improved and labour markets should be reformed.  True. But aren’t people going to be employed to do that too? And aren’t these people the same youths that have no skill and quality experience to help improve education and reform the Labour markets? Irony? 

 

In 1984, Margaret Thatcher stated that “Young people ought not to be idle,  it is very bad for them”. I totally agree with the statement because the kind of things that I think about when I’m idle can not be documented. She was definitely right. So what then is the solution to the problem? How can the number of youths that belong to the “Generation Jobless” class be reduced? An article I read stated that the closest answer to the question is to close the gap between the world of work and the world of education by improving on the content of education though upgrading of vocational and technical education… In other words, students should learn more about entrepreneurial skills and apprenticeships!

As a member of “Generation Jobless”,  I welcome the idea of introducing entrepreneurship to youths at the earliest age. Apparently It has already begun in some few countries like Korea and Germany and even Nigeria. My younger brother in secondary school had earlier mentioned that it had been introduced to their curriculum and I was thrilled to hear that. The question now is, after acquiring so much knowledge about starting a business,  how would we get finance to start building our brands?