Slow progress as city job centre makes six months

Nearly Six months after a facility put in place by the City of Kigali to help ease the unemployment problem through linking young graduates with prospective employers, it is still struggling to create an impact.Kigali Employment Service Centre (KESC) was also set up to mould the youth into job-creators.The managers of the centre attribute the slow progress to reluctance by the private sector to cooperate and lack of capacity building for the employees.Of the over 600 job seekers registered on the KESC website, at least 180 were facilitated to attend the training on job creation and only four have created their own jobs, while 117 job seekers completed the job search strategies training.The training for the jobseekers helps them learn interviewing techniques, which help them during job interviews and 16 have gone on to secure jobs in private companies.“The impact is still minimal, but if you consider the only five months that the centre has operated, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The challenge, however, is that the private sector has not yet responded to the call to give information on available jobs,” said Anne Mugabo, the Director General of Labour and Employment at the Ministry of Public Service and Labour.Mugabo said the centre’s staff also lack sufficient skills and equipment to help them execute their duties.The centre was opened on May 30, with three main objectives; giving entrepreneurship tips; providing important employment tips to fresh graduates, including guidance on how to conduct oneself during interview; and linking job seekers to potential employers.To reach their target, the centre, is located in the premises of Kimisagara Youth Centre, in Nyarugenge District, organises regular training sessions and offers printing and internet services.The trainingsAline Umutoni, the employment councillor at the centre, justifies the kind of training they offer especially to graduates, saying it is crucial.“Some people would be good bank accountants, while others would perform well as hospital accountants,” she said.In the two-week training, they also teach them to write application letters, CVs and preparing for an interview since it was found that schools do not teach students these core skills. The centre also has an outreach programme, where they meet different employers and encourage them not only to regularly post their recruitment announcements on the centre’s website, but also to come and recruit from the centre.So far, 17 companies have been approached and seven are reportedly willing to post their job announcements on the centre’s website.According to managers of the centre, among the employers that have expressed interest are government institutions and major corporations operating in Kigali.Speaking to The New Times, Aloys Niyonsaba, the centre manager, identified nepotism as one of the challenges affecting the centre.“There is a habit of recruiting relatives irrespective of their capacity especially in the private sector. But I believe others do not yet know about our service,” Niyonsaba said.Niyonsaba said the centre cannot be faulted for the small number of job seekers who got employment, because their duty is to tip them on good conduct during the exams and link them to potential employees, and not finding jobs for them.Gerald Mukubu, the Deputy CEO of the Private Sector Federation (PSF), said it was too early to judge the private sector, because it doesn’t mean that whoever completes the training in KESC should automatically get a job.“We support the initiative. Maybe the major issue is not well captured. It is probably a curriculum problem,” Mukubu said.Sigrid Jonas Tagiz, the technical advisor who represents the Germany technical cooperation (sponsor) said a meeting is scheduled in January to examine the centre’s sustainability and to forge a way forward.Some indicatorsThe third integrated household living condition survey (EICV 3) conducted in 2010/2011 indicated that unemployment rate stands at 13 per cent in the capital city and eight per cent in the countryside.Mugabo said the country gets 125,000 new job seekers on the labour market annually, yet it can only create 104,000 jobs each year.The second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS II) target is to create 200,000 new jobs every year, and to have 50 per cent of the Rwandans in working age doing farm jobs by 2018.Mugabo says this is realistic, because in 2011, over 28 per cent were already in off farm jobs.The official said apart from KESC, the ministry has budgeted for two more job seeker centres to be created next year. They will be established in Nyagatare and Huye in the Eastern and Southern provinces, respectively.“We now have experience from KESC and think it will work after the feasibility study we are conducting,” Mugabo said.

National

Slow progress as city job centre makes six months