IN many countries, particularly developing countries, the issue of absorbing youths into the workforce is becoming a crucial one against the backdrop of a rapidly changing demand for labour.
In some societies, there is a great demand for labour but it cannot be fulfilled because youths do not have the requisite qualifications or skills training. Consequently, many are left unemployed or gain low- level employment.
According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes is one of the six Education For All (EFA) goals established at the World Education Forum in Dakar, 2000.
Provision of vocational skills training constitutes an important component in national strategies for achieving EFA.
Yet, as the EFA Monitoring Report published last year by UNESCO reveals, efforts made by developing countries tend to concentrate on universal primary education and literacy, but do not pay sufficient attention to skills training for youth and adults. Even though there may be numerous initiatives focusing on providing education and training people from marginalised groups, they are often small in scale and are not always recognised as part of a comprehensive national education strategy.
UNESCO’s section for technical and vocational education and the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) recently launched a project which aims at integrating a vocational skills development component into the National EFA Action Plans of five selected Least Developed Countries. The needs of marginalised groups such as out-of-school youth, the rural poor and girls/women are prioritised in the project. UNESCO’s assistance focuses on the enhancement of the local planning and coordination capacity.
In 2003, existing skills training programmes for disadvantaged groups were reviewed, and policies and institutional environment were analysed in four countries in Africa and Asia (Mali, Senegal, Laos and Nepal). National workshops gathered different EFA stakeholders (different ministries, representatives of civil society and international partners) to discuss the results of the studies and to develop realistic strategies to implement the proposed EFA skill development plan. The experiences of these selected countries were shared with other developing countries at the inter-regional seminar held at the IIEP (Paris, 22-23 January 2004) and suggestions for a more comprehensive approach to EFA were discussed.
The Government of Guyana, cognizant of the need to train youths in the relevant skills, has aggressively pursued skills training for youths through several programmes.
Under the Ministry of Education’s TECHVOC programme, it has been establishing technical institutes in rural communities in addition to the long established ones in the urban communities.
Consequently, there are technical institutes on the Corentyne, at Mahaicony and Leonora. This will now enable thousands who would not have been able to attend those urban technical institutes to now receive  technical education which is becoming more of an imperative rather than an option to gain employment in our industries.
But, apart from the opportunities to receive technical training from the formal education system, there are several other subsidiary training programmes being offered.
One of them is the Youth Entrepreneurial Skills Training (YEST) programme at the Kuru Kuru Training Centre (KKTC). This programme has been a fairly successful one with another 221 youths being the most recent graduating batch which is in addition to the already 1,500 that have graduated since the programme started offering a wide range of training which include Business Studies, Carpentry, Electrical Engineering, Garment Construction, Motor Mechanics, Furniture making, Plumbing and Sheet metal, Welding, Fabrication, Masonry and Joinery.
In addition, GUYSUCO also has an excellent apprentice training programme along with several other industries and companies.
Many countries which have grown from the bottom to the top owe their success largely through the focus on skills training for their youths. In Asia, Singapore and the Republic of Korea are two fine examples of this.
We have embarked on a similar road which must be expanded and sustained.