By Sorie Ibrahim Fofanah
The Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Mohamed Rahman Swaray has said they would ensure they prepare Sierra Leonean graduates to be able to compete in the job market both locally and internationally.’
Swaray was speaking to Politico in an interview after the Ministry of Information and Civic Education’s weekly press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Freetown on 17th October this year.
“The previous week, we officially began to put together a national volunteering policy,” the Minister said, adding that through Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), and are funding the process, that has an international consultant.
“We are preparing our graduates to be able to compete for jobs both nationally and internationally,’’ he emphasized.
On the concerns of graduates not having working experience upon completing their courses that match the demands of employers, he said having a national volunteering policy, would spell out the opportunities that graduates would acquire during the period of volunteering in those foreign voluntary services they have signed an MOU with, adding experience gained in those voluntary services would be attractive to employers.
He pointed out that they have launched the work-study programme, and are encouraging graduates that are qualified to apply.
On the timeline for the implementation of the work-study progamme, minister Swarry said his predecessor Alpha Timbo at the Labour Ministry started the project,that has now been launched on behalf of President Julius Maada Bio. He further stated that ‘’as a pilot, eleven Sierra Leoneans are in the United States of America (USA) studying in various US universities, in courses ranging from Cyber Security, Mining Engineering to Mechanical Engineering , “emphasizing that the project is ongoing and that he is ‘scaling’ it up to properly formalize it.”
He stated that there are lots of graduates that have been waiting in the labour market, noting that it is a matter of skills, competence and other requirements. “Our educational system is not making provision for students to target skills that employers require,’’ he maintained.
On how the 500,000 jobs would cater for unskilled youth, Swaray said there is a provision for ‘everyone’.
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