Measure to Reduce Structural Unemployment and Alleviate Poverty
The definition of structural unemployment is the unemployment that results from structural changes in the economy which results in a long run mismatch of jobs being offered and skills of the labor force.
The definition of poverty is the conditions of people who have very low incomes.
As a single measure to help reduce structural unemployment and alleviate poverty we would recommend empowering the low income sector of the population with ‘free’ basic education and training.
Free basic education and training is a supply side based measure to empower the less privileged with skills that meet requirements of jobs being offered by firms. This measure calls for the government to drastically reduce the barriers to accessing education and training for the under privileged, by either giving grants or loans to willing students for their primary, secondary and tertiary education.
A large portion of structural unemployment6 arises due to lack of appropriate skills (i.e. lack of the right education and training). This lack of skills happens at all levels of the job market, from shop floor level all the way to management level. At the low level this is caused by people who are seeking employment, but did not even have the opportunity to go to school to learn to read and write, which is a basic requirement for employment, even to become a sweeper. At the high level of skills lack you have secondary or University/tertiary level graduates who fail to acquire advanced skills for high level jobs due to lack of financial resources to enter into the high level training programmes such as Graduate Business Schools. These people will again face unemployment as firms will not employ them citing lack of the appropriate skills.
Free Education and Training Programme
This programme of free education would be open to all ages and gender but targeted at people who can demonstrate that they can not afford to pay for their education or training. Included in beneficiaries would
The definition of poverty is the conditions of people who have very low incomes.
As a single measure to help reduce structural unemployment and alleviate poverty we would recommend empowering the low income sector of the population with ‘free’ basic education and training.
Free basic education and training is a supply side based measure to empower the less privileged with skills that meet requirements of jobs being offered by firms. This measure calls for the government to drastically reduce the barriers to accessing education and training for the under privileged, by either giving grants or loans to willing students for their primary, secondary and tertiary education.
A large portion of structural unemployment6 arises due to lack of appropriate skills (i.e. lack of the right education and training). This lack of skills happens at all levels of the job market, from shop floor level all the way to management level. At the low level this is caused by people who are seeking employment, but did not even have the opportunity to go to school to learn to read and write, which is a basic requirement for employment, even to become a sweeper. At the high level of skills lack you have secondary or University/tertiary level graduates who fail to acquire advanced skills for high level jobs due to lack of financial resources to enter into the high level training programmes such as Graduate Business Schools. These people will again face unemployment as firms will not employ them citing lack of the appropriate skills.
Free Education and Training Programme
This programme of free education would be open to all ages and gender but targeted at people who can demonstrate that they can not afford to pay for their education or training. Included in beneficiaries would