By Hassan Osman Kargbo
The Minister of Employment Labour and Social Security, Mr. Mohamed Rahman Swaray says the country is producing a lot of graduate without the required skills.
He made this statement on Tuesday 16 July 2024, at the Ministry of Information and Civic Education press conference held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Coperation conference room at Tower Hill Freetown.
According to the Minister, unemployment situation is a serious concern in the country, but he said, part of the unemployment problem in the country is that the country is producing a lot of graduate that doesn’t have the required skills or the required competences and the much needed experience in the job market.
“The unemployment situation is a serious concern in the country, but part of the unemployment problem in the country is that the country is producing a lot of graduate that doesn’t have the required skills or the required competences and also the much needed experience in the private sector is very limited,” he stated.
He continued that university graduates need the much needed requisite in the private sector. He said recently he saw a job Fair which is very good for the young graduate in the country and it would help them to expose on certain career paths.
He mentioned that they have developed a tripartite federation, the Labour Congress, the Employees Federation and other players, they are thinking about a social dialogue that would bring employees together and also the universities administrations so that they could seat and talk on the way forward to minimize the unemployment situation in the country. He said that could create much needed support for them. He said for instance, Sierra Rutile could come and say these are the skills that they are looking out for so that they could come and train them in diverse ways.
He mentioned that they would try to facilitate for short courses for university graduate so that they could meet certain demands in the private or public sector market. He said some graduate can’t even put their CV together properly and they want to come to the cooperate world which could be a big problem for them. He said a CV is a marketing tool which every graduate should take very seriously. And people should always try to have a structured CV that would be convincing to the public because according to him, there are clear rules that talk about employment strategies in the country. He mentioned the Employment Act of 2023 that put out certain ways on how to recruit people and other things in the employment sector.
He added that they have created a job application site for all Sierra Leoneans residents, where they could tracking all new jobs through labour cards applications, labour immigration and some significant areas in the country.
He admitted that they have tried to establish what he called as the Trade Testing Unit thought it lakes the required equipment at the moment. He said this Unit is meant for people that don’t have regular or formal education they could go there after thorough scrutiny they would give them certificate so that they would have a qualifications doubles with their skills.
“We have tried to establish what the Trade Testing Unit thought it lacks the required equipment at the moment. But, this Unit is meant for people that don’t have regular or formal education they can come and go through thorough scrutiny and later we will give them certificate so that they would have a qualifications doubles with their skills,” he said.
