MTC chair calls for relaxation of job experience demands

THE chairperson of the MTC board of directors, Elvis Nashilongo, has urged employers to drop high job experience requirements as they contribute to slowing overall development and social progress.

He said this at the launch of the MTC national internship programme in Windhoek on Monday.

The national internship programme is a response to assist graduates attain minimum job experience required by the market, and help various institutions find placement for their students to complete academic requirements.

Nashilongo indicated that the participating institutions, being the University of Namibia, Namibia University of Science and Technology, International University of Management, Namibia Institute of Mining and Technology and all vocational training centres, have a demand of over 48 000 placements per year.

These students are in most cases left to secure internships for themselves, he said.

“We are calling for greater collaboration between institutions of higher learning and corporate entities in Namibia to find solutions to this and other challenges facing the pedagogical community in our country,” he stated, adding that this burden cannot be left to academia alone.

Nashilongo said to achieve this objective, employers are being urged to drop demanding work experience from interns.

“Our success as business entities has always been subject to the nation’s ability to consistently produce relevant and requisite skills,” he noted.

The programme will accommodate 160 interns per year, who will be placed at 22 partner organisations.

Nashilongo advised corporate organisations which have shown interest in the programme to ensure there is a genuine transfer of skills and experience through monitoring and mentoring so that the programme does not just become another tick-off exercise.

Speaking at the same event, minister of higher education Itah Kandjii-Murangi said due to industry needs and demands that are changing rapidly, graduates need to be equipped with relevant knowledge and skills.

“Internship programmes, among many goals, I believe seek to expand avenues for students and graduates to gain specialised knowledge and profession-specific employability skills,” she stated.

Kandjii-Murangi added that due to economic contractions being experienced, the government’s revenue streams are affected, and it is making it hard to create employment opportunities both in the public and private sectors.

Unemployment figures expand annually, with 10 000 graduates failing to secure employment, the minister said.

According to the Namibia Statistics Agency’s 2018 labour force survey, out of 576 600 young people who are able to work, only 310 850 were able to get jobs in that year, leaving 46% without employment.

“Programmes like this are significant to human capital development. There is no doubt that once armed with practical and hands-on knowledge and skills, students and graduates will be job-ready,” Kandjii-Murangi added.

She said the government will also soon establish a policy framework to formalise and implement a work-based learning scheme.

The minister thus urged the industry to join MTC and other stakeholders to make the programme even bigger and better for eligible youth, and to produce highly skilled graduates who meet industry demands through work-based learning.

Kandjii-Murangi furthermore advised the students to grab the opportunity, and put it to good use for their own empowerment to increase their employability after the programme.

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