Recognising that there is an “unemployment scourge” facing the country’s young people, the Department of Youth will Friday host a job fair intended to provide on the spot hiring, but hundreds already stand to be disappointed.
The fair only caters for 200 job placements, but at the time of a press conference Wednesday morning, there were 699 applications, with 174 of those being from male applicants.
This was announced by Director of Youth Malissa Carmichael.
The job fair is a new initiative coming from the Ministry of Social Cohesion – Department of Youth.
The Director of Youth said the need for the fair arose during consultations held with youths from across the country; the main complaint was of unemployment of young people even if they are qualified.
“The objective of this job fair is…to provide a space for information sharing among companies and…to provide a venue for young people to speak directly to Human Resources representatives of the various companies.
“It is also an opportunity to share with private sector the need…and the importance to engage the nations young people.
“And most importantly it is tackling the youth unemployment scourge,” Carmichael told the media.
The Director of Youth said a number of companies have signalled their interest in being a part of the job fair including GTT, Courts Guyana, DDL, Qualfon, the Master Class Institute and Giftland.
Jobs will be in the customer service industry and depending on the companies present there will be technical positions.
Jermaine Watson, from the volunteer support platform within the Department of Youth, said from the applications received, most have completed secondary education and 10% are currently pursuing higher education at the University of Guyana.
The Director of Youth said her department has noted that persons find it difficult to land a job when they leave school; with that in strategies have been developed to guide youths.
“In order for us to ensure that they head towards careers, we have to start our work within the school system – meeting with the young people not only in sixth form or fifth form…but giving them career guidance and job readiness training.
“After this fair, the Department of Youth will move into a series of job readiness training both for in school and out of school young people. We believe that this will provide an opportunity for [young people] …to start thinking of the place they want to be in terms of career and give them enough information and training… so when they leave the secondary school system they understand what is the next step,” Carmichael said.
