Government through the Workforce Development Authority (WDA) and Private Sector Federation (PSF) has introduced a labour market information system (LMIS) to connect employees to potential employers and vice versa.

This development was revealed last week by the Director General of WDA, Chong Fook Yen, during presentations of the PSF internship programme at Hotel Hilltop.

"We have set up the first ever website in the East African Community (EAC) linking skilled unemployed people with prospective employers. They will only be required to visit the website and fill the job seeking page,” Yen explained.

He further said that it will also serve as a tool in monitoring and assessing many of the pertinent issues related to the world’s labour market.

"Six of the 20 key indicators of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) have been selected to tackle the urgent needs of the Rwanda Labour Market Information System,” Yen revealed.

He explained further that the system is going to support the government and ministries to promote active labour market policies concerning closing the skills gap and the effects of political intervention as well as evaluating the results.

"We want to change people’s attitude from being comfortable with the current situation to a state of urgency so that they can move on to better places for better development,” Yen said.

According to Stephen Mugabe, an LMIS specialist, the system will provide employers beyond Rwanda with different manpower skills available in the country.

"To a certain extent, the international community thinks we are not skilled just because we don’t have a center that provides them with such information about the labour workforce,” he explained.

Mugabe also said that the system will provide an electronic and web-based information system with harmonised database software in collecting and disseminating labour market information to significant people.

"So, it’s no longer necessary for unemployed people to buy newspapers or magazines looking for jobs; you’re only supposed to visit this website which is active now,” he said.

"Employers here have been repatriating skilled man power from abroad but with this system, Rwandans will advertise free of charge their potential skills not only in the country but even beyond borders,’ he explained.

The website is due to formalise and standardise the dictionary of occupational classification in view of its strategic role of planning to overcome skill shortages in the country, Mugabe further elaborated.

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