Job Booster SierraLeone,a local agency which links job seekers with prospective employers,has on Friday August 14, 2020at REAPS Vocational Training Institute in Freetown launched new project titled “Salon Project” to help easesome of the effects of COVID-19 on young entrepreneurs in the job market in Sierra Leone.
Team leader, MariamaKhai Fornah,said that the project dubbed“Job Booster” is being implemented by a consortium which constitutes three organizations: Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone (EFSL), Cotton Tree Foundation (CTF) and Woord en Daad (WD), withthe objective ofreducing unemployment rate among youths in Sierra Leone.
“We experienced that young Sierra Leoneans are illegallymigratingto other countries in search of job as a result of the high rate of unemployment… In order to save life and stop the illegal migration into foreign lands which cause great loss of preciouslives, we established this consortium to help those unemployedyouths; weimprove self-employment, help trainable unemployed youths to gain decent jobs that would help them to be self-reliant. We have targetedto expand ten Salons in different areas in the Freetown. ”
She added that the organizations cooperates with others with workers who possess specific skills to save business time and money, and provides mentorship skills in demand for its unemployed youths who have good track records and are honest.
Fornah said that, potential employees, training service providers, youth coalition organizationsand the Government oF Sierra Leone and her agencies will be brought together to reduce the problem of youth unemployment in the country.
She noted that the consortium is mostly concerned with identifying and working with the private sector, identify their staffing and employment needs and facilitate their employment chances by linking selected and trainable youths to training organization, identify and work with training institutions, work with the appropriate government bodies to ensure the necessary support.
The CEO of the Cotton Tree Foundation, JoanKamara, explained that there are youths who have graduated from different universities in Sierra Leone, but their conditions are still deplorable because the courses they studied don’t match up to the present job markets in Sierra Leone which had enable them to remain unemployed.
She said that the organization is aimed at improving the linkage between supply and demand in the job market, emphasizing that ifunemployment rate is high there will be a negative impact on the economic growth which she said was the contributing factor of the declaration of war in SierraLeone.
“Youthsat the age of 15 and above are actively searching for employment whichlarge part held certificatesand even degrees, but jobs are few and profiles of applicants do not match the companies’expectations. The education at colleges and universities is highly theoretical, resources for research and equipment are lacking and graduate miss the practical understanding.”
She said that job booster is complementing the effort of the government in securing jobs for fifty young people.
She recognized that disciplineis the key to success, and disclose that the consortium hopes to recruit employees which maintain professionalism as they carry out their jobs. “We want you to offer excellent service to the new customers and keep the old ones. Manage your time, manage your stress and have a vision of transformation,” she advised.
Abdul A Sennesi, thedeputy director of TVET from the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Institute,stated: “Job Booster cannot have the job they want to do if the skills are missing. The Ministry of Technical and Higher Education has positioned itself to make sure that they complement or oversee to create a good environment in order to see that the effort of the job booster is achieved.”
By Ibrahim S. Bangura
18/8/2020. ISSUE NO:7889