Unlocking employment puzzle is not easy

Editor, There is no a single solution or strategy for jobs. But the most obvious and certain is this: Jobs are created by investment. Investment is attracted to the best opportunities and most investment-friendly environments. Rwanda is competing in the global marketplace with other countries for the same investors. Rwanda can achieve her goals for job-creation by prudently adopting more policies that give the country a competitive advantage in this global competition for investors. What might those policies be? It would be best to ask the investors who considered Rwanda but ultimately chose to invest elsewhere. Tom Allen, KigaliRwanda ******************** We have 60 of the brightest young Rwandans studying at our university in Oklahoma in government priority fields. The questions from the beginning of the programme have been: What jobs will they return to? Can they bring the skills and experience to be the job creators Rwanda needs? Both are good questions that receive varied answers depending on who you talk to. Some of the answers I’ve heard are “the jobs aren’t there for these graduates” and “the jobs are there but they aren’t available for Rwandans companies tend to hire international help with technical expertise”. I don’t have a clear understanding yet of the answers to those questions but I appreciate Tom Allen’s response and I also applaud the Rwandan government for seeking to create an investment-friendly environment. Thank you. John Osborne, Oklahoma CityUSA ******************** The low wages is not the issue for the 125,000 jobs seekers hitting the street every year, looking for a job. We should examine some of the factors why they are not getting the jobs: Are government policies working? Do the job seekers have the right skills? How many jobs are actually available? Find the latest PSF’s Business Investment Survey 2013, read the comments of employers who are complaining among others that our graduates actually lack the aggressiveness and proper attitude for jobs. Civil engineering graduates are scared of heights and they don’t want to get dirty with cement. In banks, graduates don’t want to be tellers, they want to be managers from the onset. When you look at all these, you conclude that we are in trouble. While the government is creating jobs, colleges must improve on the quality of the people they are churning out. Employers are not looking for Rwandans with degrees, they are looking for skilled people who can increase production. It’s high time we Rwandans know that when you leave campus, you should be able to find a job anywhere in the region or beyond. But another question will pop up: Do we have enough skills to compete beyond our borders? Thanks. Concerned citizenRwanda Reactions to the story, “Unlocking Rwanda’s employment puzzle”, (The New Times, May 7)

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Unlocking employment puzzle is not easy