The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Youth Unemployment is a seemingly contradictory scenario although statistics boast a significant reduction of 7.3% from the prevalent 9.3%.
The labor ministry’s recent decision to come-up with an exclusive ‘Career and Employment Guidebook’ is therefore a supplementary move to address this issue.
Labor Minister Dorji Wangdi said majority of jobseekers are youth who have completed Class X and XII, and observations dictate that they go-about without proper knowledge and information on the labor market.
To guide them through proper ways and means to approach the job market and prepare them, the ministry will distribute the guidebooks to all the schools by October this year.
The ministry is positive, after the nation-wide distribution students will be better-aware of the job market and prepare themselves accordingly.
At the moment most of the youth after completion of their higher secondary and middle secondary levels of education stick with one job.
The labor minister said that in such cases an era of career for this life is gone forever.
The forthcoming guidebook aims such perceptions and show that the labor market is dynamic in nature.
Lyonpo Dorji Wangdi said “tackling the unemployment issue requires multiple tasks as one solution is not enough to overcome the issues. Above all, tackling the issue during transition from school to workplace is difficult”.
The guidebook would also provide information on training opportunities, employment opportunities, higher studies and ex-country scholarship programs.
The guidebook would also be inclusive of different ways in which to approach such opportunities, decide what to choose and prepare suitably.
The labor minister said the ministry is responsible to provide information and facilitate opportunities but ultimately the choice rests in the hands of the jobseekers, the youth.
“Moreover, choosing the right opportunity is a right of an employee,” he said.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) stresses on freely-chosen employment.
“The right to choose should be balanced though, with certain obligations as one cannot remain unemployed. They should choose one and get engaged,” said Lyonpo Dorji Wangdi.
The labor ministry’s soon-to-be launched guidebook would also aid personal requirements to get jobs at a glance and in a comprehensive manner. It would also guide on interview skills which was taken out from standard literature.
Also the ministry will come-up with its first series of Human Resource Advisory (HRA) since the core mandate is to guide the human resource development in the country.
The HRA would forecast the needs of certain employment opportunities which can help policy makers, educational institutes and other relevant agency to frame apt policies and make concise decisions.
“Since mismatch between skills and job available is the main problem, henceforth issues like inability to absorb electrical engineers in the market would not occur,” he said.
Labor minister Dorji Wangdi said the HRA would provide policy and institutional restructuring advice for re-arranging the education and training in keeping with the need of the professionals in the future economy.
It would tackle the issue of mismatch in the long run as it can foreshadow the labor market scenario and the needs of certain discipline of professions in the market.
The 11th plan highlights building adequate high quality demand-based and skilled workforce, promotion of decent and happy working conditions and promoting full and productive employment among its objectives.
