INTRODUCTION
The book, ‘The Crisis of Youth Unemployment in Namibia: Recommendations for Pro-Youth Economic and
Employment Policies’, launched by the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI) in late 2011 reveals
shocking statistics that claim that Namibia is facing a critical youth unemployment crisis as no less than 75 per
cent of the country’s youth were unemployed. This somehow loses correlation with the UNESCO assertion on
basic education which then raises the question on whether Namibia is employing the right policies and strategies
to educate its youth and prepare them for employment.
Vision 2030 aspires for a prosperous and industrialised Namibia, developed by her human resources, enjoying
peace, harmony and political stability. In line with this national vision there is a need to impart skills and render
financial support (capacity building) to the youth of Namibia if Vision 2030 is to be achieved. In addition, the
main objective of Vision 2030 is to improve the quality of life of all Namibians to the level of their counterparts in
the developed world by 2030. Such a vision entails the undertaking of various activities that among many include
education of the local populace (human capital development) and infrastructure development. This can only be
achieved through a rigorous pursuit of capacity building (institutional restructuring and human resources
development) by both public and private sectors.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) regards human capital as both a key driver of
economic growth and a means to promote overall development. UNECA also points that the most important
phase in the process of developing human capital in the form of general knowledge is during the years in which
people are young and are still in school. After finishing formal education, young people should be able to
subsequently make a successful transition from school to work with the skills and knowledge they acquired. More
specific skills can then be developed through training and on the job experience. This process is an integral step
towards promoting economic growth, poverty reduction and prosperity.
Namibia is not spared in the fight to empower its youth in terms of education and skills development. This
position paper seeks to give guidance as to how the policy of youth education and skills training can be
effectively devised and implemented in order to achieve a situation where the youth are empowered and ready to
tackle the challenges that come with adult life.
Investing in basic education has been a mainstay of the development agenda over the last few decades. The
trend in Namibia and other developing countries today is that for anyone to find employment, they need to have
at least a secondary education to see them through. The World Education Forum, held in Dakar, Senegal in
2001 resulted in a commitment by African Countries to meet the objective of access to basic education by
adopting a policy that they called “Education for All” (EFA).
According to the United Nations’ Industrial Development Report of 2004, UNESCO reckons that Namibia along
with 13 other African countries is on course to meet the second Millennium Development of achieving universal
basic education as measured in terms of the net enrolment and completion rates. The other countries in the pack
are Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Egypt, Gabon, Mauritius, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Seychelles, South
Africa, Togo, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.
STATUS QUO: THE CURRENT STATE OF YOUTH EDUCATION AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN NAMIBIA
Skills and vocational training
In 2011 Namibia moved up two places in the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development
Index (HDI). The country is now ranked 105th in comparison with 2010’s 107th place out of 169 countries. The
only neighbouring country that is ranked higher on the HDI list is Botswana in 98th place. South Africa is ranked
110th, Angola 146th, Zambia 150th and Zimbabwe in the last place. Consequently Namibia is rated as a medium
human development country. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident
representative in Namibia, Kari Egge, the global HDI has risen dramatically – an impressive 41% in the last 40
years. According to the report Namibia’s HDI value increased from 0.553 to 0.606 between 1990 and 2010,
which is an increase of 10%. There are at least three broad purposes for this type of analysis:
1) To capture the attention of policy makers, media and civil society organisations in general, and in particular
those stakeholders involved in implementing Vision 2030 and preparing the next National Development Plan.
National strategies typically include human development in their overarching objectives and the HDI and HPI can
help quantify targets and measure progress.
2) To highlight differences in capabilities and deprivations within Namibia between regions and communities,
across gender, ethnicity, and other socioeconomic groupings, in order to facilitate the targeting of policies and
interventions to achieve the greatest possible impact.
3) To facilitate international comparisons and the exploration of why human development and poverty in some
countries, including Namibia, is deteriorating while other countries are making progress. Such analysis should
stimulate debate on government policies in a range of areas and galvanise action at all levels of society.
Although the HDI is an average measure of basic human development in a country, it masks the inequality of the
distribution of human development across the population at the country level (See figure 1 below). The authors of
this paper argue that it must be government’s priority to provide public-funded training or financial support for
private provision of skills and vocational training. There is an evident mismatch between the skills of the youth
and the demands of the employers, so such a mismatch has to be corrected. Since independence enrolment in
vocational training centres (VTCs) has increased more than sixteen times from about 150 trainees to 2 500
trainees (ETSIP Vocational Education and Training Report commissioned by Ministry of Education). In addition,
community skills development centres (COSDECs) have been established in nine locations to provide non
formula short-term training for youth and adults. An instructor training programme has been established at the
Polytechnic of Namibia (PoN). The government has already planned for some reforms that respond to
weaknesses in the sub-sector. A training levy was authorised by the National Vocational Education and Training
Act in 1994, but has not yet been implemented. In 2003, Cabinet approved the establishment of the Namibia
Training Authority (NTA) to take overall responsibility for management of the system under the direction of
employers and other stakeholders, and also to devolve greater authority to VTCs to improve their management
capacity and contextual relevance. A Project Management Unit (PMU) was created to prepare for the
establishment of the NTA. One of its main achievements has been the formation of Technical Working Groups
(TWGs) and National Assessment Panels (NAPs) in which industry is fully involved and chairs the different
Committees. The TWGs develop standards, qualifications and competency based education and training (CBET)
modularised curricula for technical trades, commercial courses as well as hospitality and tourism. NAPs develop
and manage national assessment and certification arrangements in their areas of responsibility.
We have 36 institutions offering Vocational Education Training Programmes in Namibia but their reach to the
youth must be expanded. Such institutions have been seen to produce skilled employees who even go on to
form their own businesses and create employment. Private provision through institutions such as Namibia
Institute for Mining Technology (NIMT) can be utilized to improve the quality of the training courses through the
development of a competitive environment. The government must encourage private players to take on this
challenge through incentives that will be offered to players that engage in skills development
The University of Namibia (UNAM) admitted 4,366 new students out of 15,577 applications received for this
academic year. This means that 11, 211 people who sought admission to UNAM were rejected. The number of
admissions is against the backdrop of over 6,000 students who scored enough points in last year’s Grade 12
examinations to qualify for university admission. The total number of students enrolled at UNAM last year was
17,802, of which 10% were foreign students. In the light of this, there is a great need to encourage the private
sector to invest in education services to complement efforts by government to empower the Namibia population
with skills. This can be done by instituting policies that attract investors to the education sector.
Namibia has over the years showed that the country has made some significant improvements in the delivery of
basic education. The Literacy rate; youth total (% of people ages 15-24) in Namibia was 92.98 in 2009 (or 93%
as reported by National Planning Commission of Namibia) and 92.90 in 2008, according to a World Bank report,
published in 2010. This is a sharp rise from 89% in 1990 as reported by UNICEF. However, according to
Namibia’s 2nd Millennium Development Goals of 2008 the country should have 100% literacy rate for youth by
2012. This has not yet been achieved.
According to National Planning Commission of Namibia, the net primary school enrolment rate stands at around
92% which is commendable compared to 89% of 1992. However since 2003 enrolment has been on a downward
trend and the target of 99.1%, according to the 2nd Millennium Development Goals of 2008 by 2012 has not yet
been to meet.
From 2000 to 2006 there was a slight increase in the net primary school enrolment rate (from 91% to 92%).
However, it must be noted that the net primary school enrolment rate has been on a downward trend since 2003,
although it is still above 90%. In the same period, the survival rate to grade 5 has stayed the same (94%), while
the survival rate to grade 8 has increased from 75% to 81%. The survival rate to grade 8 has increased from
59% in 1992 to 81% in 2006, and the target of 80.2% has already been achieved. The survival rate to grade 5 is
improving, so even if the rates in 2000 and 2006 were the same (94%), the target (99.2%) can possibly be
achieved by 2013
One area of concern is that about 10% of children between 6 and 16 years of age have never attended school.
Therefore, efforts should be intensified to ensure that all children of school-going age attend school. Government
should further strive to identify the inhibiting factors in reaching 100% enrolment rates. Namibia lies in the middle
range compared to its neighbours, and in an African context Namibia performs well. On the other hand, in many
developed countries the survival rate is close to 100%. While the net enrolment rate is encouraging at above
90%, this rate should be maintained and more resources should be allocated to improving the survival rates
Figure 1 below shows literacy rate by Namibia’s regions. There is a need to focus effort and resources towards
harmonising the literacy rates of Namibia’s regions since there are great disparities from one region to another.
Kunene Region has a reported literacy rate of 58% as compared to Khomas Region with a literacy rate of 97%
Figure1: literacy rate by Namibia’s regions
In this regard the government should allocate resources to where social returns are the highest, while to address
problems of inequitable access to education, investments could be targeted at the most disadvantaged segments
of the youth.
This also applies to improving access to universal primary education, particularly for young girls, disabled
children and pupils from indigenous communities. This can be achieved by reducing the costs of education,
which includes abolishing school fees and ensuring that uniforms and other supplementary costs are affordable
or free as has been the case in Sri Lanka for some decades. The government also needs to improve parental
involvement in school administration. A suggestion from the World Bank in 2005 is to develop female role
models, which can be provided in by having enough female teachers in the education system.
According to African Investor (March-April 2011 edition), it is estimated that in Africa 422 million are under the
age of 15years old. In 2011, 33 million babies are expected, who will eventually need education and the number
keeps growing since the births outstrips deaths and net migration threefold. The African Investor also mentioned
that African governments cannot meet the enormous education needs of their people alone even if they get aid
to offer free primary schooling. The solution to the high demand for education services lies in private education.
Since 1990, Namibia has definitely made progress in overcoming the insufficient and unfair educational situation
inherited by the colonial and apartheid systems. Especially in terms of quantity, schooling facilities have been
built, renovated or expanded and the number of teachers increased by 30%. According to the Word Bank’s 2010
report, the general teacher/student ratio in Namibia is 1 to 50 and Namibia is still below (SACMEQ) III
requirements when it comes to reading and mathematics. Results revealed that Namibia’s overall reading
average is 497 points while SACMEQ requires 512 points and the mathematics average is 471 points compared
to SACMEQ’s (Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality) 509.7 requirement.
In 2006, more than 95% of the Namibian school age children were going to school and repetition and dropout
rates have been going down. 94% of the students pass the 5th grade today (1991: 75%), the average number of
years in school is above 8 by 2012, and the literacy rate amongst Namibians between the age of 15 and 24 has
been going up to more than 93%. Namibia has managed to improve its Education for All Development Index
(EDI) provided by UNESCO by more than 5% since 1999 (source: www.adeanet.org)
School attendance in Namibia is compulsory for Children aged 6 to 13 years. According to the Namibia
Household Income & Expenditure Survey (NHIES) of 2003, 84.7% of all persons aged 6 and above attend formal
schooling and 15% never attended school. Among those aged between 6 and 16 years, 10% reported that they
had never been to school. There are minor differences in school attendance between the sexes. Figure 2 below
shows population aged 6+ by school attendance, sex and age group. A school attendance of 84.7% of children
aged 6 to 13 years is commendable. However there is a need to examine the trend in Namibia’s education.
Figure 6 below shows population aged 15+ by highest level of education attainment by region and urban/rural
area. From the same figure it can be seen that 5.9% of the population 15 years and older attend education up to
tertiary level. This transforms to 64,743 people attaining tertiary qualifications by July 2003. However this is a far
cry from the number of people that attain secondary education qualifications. According to NHIES, 45.5% of
people 15 years and older (499,288 people) attain secondary education qualifications. This means 12.97% of
people who attend secondary education proceed to attain tertiary educational qualification. In essence 87.03% of
the population aged 15 years and above do not proceed to tertiary education.
Figure 2: Population aged 6+ by school attendance, sex and age group.
Sex
Age group
School Attendance
Total
Has been to school %
Never been to school %
%
Female
6-16
17+
Total 6+
Number
90.7
82.4
85.1
9.1
17.5
14.8
100
100
100
263,561
547,480
811,041
Male
6-16
17+
Total 6+
88.1
82.3
84.4
11.6
17.5
15.4
100
100
100
258,240
466,272
724,512
Both Sexes
6-16
17+
Total 6+
89.4
82.3
84.7
10.3
17.5
15.1
100
100
100
521,801
1,013,752
1,535,553
(Source: www.npc.gov.na)
From figure 3 below Khomas Region has the highest number of tertiary education attendees followed by Erongo,
Karas and Caprivi regions respectively.
Figure 3: population aged 15+ by highest level of education attainment, region and urban/rural areas
Region
Caprivi
Erongo
Hardap
Karas
Kavango
Khomas
Kunene
Ohangwena
Omaheke
Omusati
Oshana
Oshikoto
Otjozondjupa
Namibia
Urban
Rural
Level of Education %
No. Formal Primary
Seconday Tetiary
Education
%
18.2
24.9
51.7
5.3
6.0
25.6
61.2
6.8
18.0
33.1
45.5
3.0
8.8
29.9
54.6
5.9
20.9
44.0
31.6
3.1
6.2
17.9
59.7
16.2
35.3
28.9
33.7
1.7
24.3
40.9
32.4
2.0
37.4
22.8
35.2
4.1
15.4
42.4
39.3
2.8
11.7
30.4
52.7
5.2
17.4
36.2
42.5
3.7
25.4
27.1
42.8
4.1
16.7
31.7
45.5
5.9
7.3
21.4
60.4
10.8
22.7
38.4
35.8
2.7
Total
Number
100
52,015
100
70,032
100
42,821
100
41,622
100
113,985
100
186,547
100
35,405
100
123,425
100
34,627
100
123,809
100
100,992
100
96,599
100
75,457
100
1,097,336
100
431,231
100
666,105
(Source: www.npc.gov.na)
After completing grade twelve, the student receives the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) and is
allowed to attend a tertiary education. However, most subjects at the universities have a restricted admission by
installing numerous clauses.
There are only two public tertiary institutions in Namibia. While the Polytechnic of Namibia (Polytec) tries to
concentrate on skills demanded by the industrial sector such as technical or administrative studies, the University
of Namibia (UNAM) tries to cover other classic university subjects. However, there is no straight division of
competences, e.g. UNAM offers engineering classes as well. As its name tells, the only private university, the
International University of Management (IUM) in Windhoek, concentrates on management subjects. UNAM’s
Ongwediva campus offers all phases of teacher education, from pre-primary to secondary education, while the
Rundu and Katima Mulilo campuses prepare teachers from pre-primary to primary level (grade 0-7) only. Both
Ongwediva and Windhoek campuses offer science and mathematics specialization for teaching at secondary
school level.
In 2008 the University Senate approved the administrative structure of the Faculty of Engineering and
Information Technology (FOET) in Ongwediva, together with several academic programmes of the engineering
curriculum offering the Professional B.Sc. (Engineering) degree at Level 8 of the National Qualifications
Framework (NQF). The Founding Departments of Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FOET) in
Ongwediva are:
•
Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering;
•
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering;
•
Mining and Metallurgical Engineering.
Other academic departments that will be introduced in the near future include Computer Engineering and
Information Technology; Civil and Environmental Engineering; Electrical and Mechatronics Engineering;
Chemical and Biomedical Engineering; and Workshops and Industrial Training. Teaching, learning and research
at Oshakati Campus is provided through its 6 constituent units: Centre for External Studies (CES), Nursing &
Public Health, Language Centre, Foundation Programme, Open Learning, and Research Unit. Ogongo Campus,
situated about 60 km west of Oshakati in the Oshana Region, is another campus, accommodating UNAM's Crop
Science Department of the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The mandate for this campus is to
participate in the development of technology that is suited for dry land and irrigated cropping in Namibia. These
technologies are encompassed in breeding, physiology, nutrition, irrigation and protection of crops and
mushroom. The Crop Science Department of the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources also has a soil
science and agriculture engineering sections that act as services to the efficiency of crop production in Namibia.
All of the universities demand a fee for the courses, but some scholarships are provided by public and private
donors for good students in financial need. Listed below are Vocational Training Centres in Namibia:
•
Valombola Vocational Training Centre
•
Zambezi Vocational Training Centre
•
Nakayale Vocational Training Centre
•
Eenhana Vocational Training Centre
•
Industrial Craft Training Institute
•
DAPP NAMIBIA
•
KAYEC TRUST
•
Namibia Construction Skills Academy
•
Nampower
•
Namibia Academy for Tourism and Hospitality
•
Namibia Institute of Mining and Technology (NIMT)
•
Namwater
•
Okakarara Vocational Training Centre
•
Rundu Vocational Training Centre
•
Wolwedans Desert Academy
•
Namibia Institute of Culinary Education
•
Windhoek Vocational Training Centre
•
Transnamib
•
Africa Institutional Management Services (AIMS)
•
Barloworld Equipment Namibia (Pty) Ltd
•
Bayteck Fire Namibia
•
Business School of Excellence
•
Camelot International Namibia
•
Culmen Testing and Training Namibia
•
Faras Horse Academy
•
Institute of Bankers Namibia (IOB)
•
Institute of Information Technology (IIT)
•
Institute of Open Learning (IOL)
•
Katutura Community College (KCC)
•
Namibian Maritime and Fisheries Institute(NAMFI)
•
National Occupational Safety Association Namibia (NOSA) (Short Courses)
•
Philippi Trust Namibia
•
Shadonai Beauty School
•
Frame Works Africa Consultancy CC (Short Courses)
•
Community Development Skills Centres COSDECs
They provide education for a handful of professions. For some professions, vocational training is taken up by the
PoN.
Focus on formal education
It is evident from the budget allocation to education (N$8, 3 billion in 2011 from N$5, 37 billion during 2009-10)
over the years that priorities have been more biased towards education. This has long-term implications for
human capital accumulation and hence economic growth. Formal education occurs in the key phase of a young
person’s life when they are the most receptive to developing their intellect and skills. This then moulds the youth
into an educated and skilful workforce that will contribute positively to the development of the country. Some of
the main policy issues for the formal education sector in Africa are persisting barriers to access, low quality of
education, poor retention rates, financing and skill mismatch (Leibbrandt & Mlatsheni 2004). However more than
90% of the education budget is allocated to operational expenditure and only 8% to capital development while
there is a serious shortage of classrooms resulting in overcrowded classes, a serious shortage of teachers’
housing and little funding for maintenance and renovation of schools and hostels. On the media briefing of June
27, 2011 of the decisions by Cabinet with respect to the outcome of the national education conference held from
27 June - 1 July 2011 The Education Minister Dr Abraham Iyambo stated that,
“Cabinet took cognisance of the fact that there is a serious shortage of classrooms resulting in overcrowded
classes, a serious shortage of teachers’ housing and little funding for maintenance and renovation of schools and
hostels,” The need to address this serious shortfall cannot be overemphasised..
Accessibility to and quality of education
Quality problems of primary and secondary education
There is a notable challenge in the lack of quality output in terms of a sufficient number adequately educated and
skilled learners and students leaving primary, secondary, tertiary education or vocational training with good
grades .This is by far the most important problem identified by various analyses of the sector, most prominent by
the World Bank published in 2010. According National Planning Commission’s report on Millennium
Development Goals of 2008, the general competence level of learners in Namibia is still low compared to other
southern and eastern African countries. The numbers of students finishing secondary or even tertiary education
is still low, and so is the percentage of students who finish secondary school or university with required skills and
knowledge to meet the needs of the market.
Considering the vast amounts of money spent in the Educational Sector, the sector remains inefficient. Namibia
ranks among the top ten countries in the world considering the percentage of money spent on education. Some
major reasons for the poor quality outcome in primary and secondary education could be identified:
•
The schooling curricula have not been very ambitious before and in the first years after independence..
•
An insufficient teacher-student ratio and lack of quality learning material for all (especially in languages
of the smaller minority groups) was and is still a big challenge Even though government and donors
were able to at least reduce this problem during the last ten years, it remains a problem, especially in
some of the poorer rural areas.
•
Language remains a very crucial issue in Namibian schools. On the one hand, students often struggle
hard to switch to English after the 4th grade and their overall performance suffers from these difficulties.
On the other hand, many teachers don’t even enforce the turn to English due to their own poor English
language skills. However, final tests have to be taken in English and students not accustomed to the
language fail or do poorly.
•
The major issue in primary education really seems to be the poor standard of the school lessons and
directly connected to this output are the teachers. This is not only mentioned by several analyses, but
most of the lecturers and teachers interviewed for this paper expressed the same assertion. In spite of
ambitious learning curricula, many teachers just don’t manage to teach the students what they are
supposed to know. Identified problems:
o
Some of the teachers got their education already before or only in the first years after
independence. Positive influences of further on the job training remain low.
o
The country needs more and better educated teachers. The government struggles in that
regard but the education of teachers is improving at a very slow pace.
Assistance with job searches and placements
According to United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s report of 2010, 45% of the unemployed youth in
sub-Saharan Africa youths stop actively looking for a job as a result of skill mismatch and unmet aspirations. In
this situation, job search assistance has been proposed in many developing countries as a means to assist
youths through improving motivation and the match between the skills of young unemployed people and the
vacancies available in the labour market. This service can include activities like writing job applications and
curriculum vitae, and preparing for interviews.
.
Tertiary Education
Namibia has two public tertiary institutions of general education, the Polytechnic of Namibia and the University of
Namibia (UNAM). At the Polytechnic of Namibia admission is based on grade 12 certificate with a maximum of
five qualifying subjects with a total score of 25 points or more and a E symbol or better in English. At the
University of Namibia’s basic requirement for entrance to undergraduate degree programmes is a Namibia
Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) with a pass in five subjects with a total score of 25 points, on the UNAM
evaluation scale, or more in not more than three examination sittings.
There are a number of specialised tertiary educational institutions such as the College of the Arts (Cota)
in Windhoek, the Namibian Maritime and Fisheries Institute (NAMFI) in Walvis Bay, Vocational Training Schools
(Windhoek Vocational Training Centre, Okakarara Vocational Training Centre, Rundu Vocational Training
Centre, Valombola Vocational Training Centre-Oshakati, Zambezi Vocational Training Centre-Katima Mulilo) and
the Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology (NIMT) in Arandis. The greatest challenge for tertiary education
is to eradicate the weaknesses of primary and secondary education in Namibia. Most outstanding challenge
seems to be the weaknesses in science and mathematics. Due to these problems, tertiary institutions currently
do not receive good applicants from the schooling system. Thus, funding is diluted by being forced to spend
money on bridging programs that bring students up to par before they start their courses.
But just as the other institutions, the universities also have problems in hiring qualified lecturers and professors.
While some are quite respected among Southern African scientists, the average standard is not very high. There
are still not enough qualified Namibian candidates coming out of the educational system and it has not been very
easy for foreign applicants to get a work permit; many of the foreign candidates found other postings before the
bureaucratic procedures have been finalized. Therefore the percentage of lecturers holding a Ph.D. or equivalent
is quite low and the overall number of lecturers is too small. Furthermore, universities still suffer from the same
quality issue than schools do. Some lecturers where educated in and are still used to the old colonial system and
haven’t improved much since then. It’s not just the students, who suffer from not enough qualified lecturers, but
also research stays on a quite low level in most subjects. Decentralization is also a matter of concern. As
mentioned above, currently most tertiary institutions are in the Windhoek area, thus disadvantaging the regions.
KEY RECCOMEDATIONS
Promoting self-employment
The youth need to be encouraged to start their own businesses. Self-employment could be an important
generator of jobs and ultimately economic growth. The Namibia Youth Credit Scheme (NYCS), as well as the
Credit for Youth in Business (CYB) are such program. It can however, be argued that the amounts that the
Namibia Youth Credit Scheme disburses to the youth are sometimes too low to enable them to establish
meaningful businesses. This policy procedure could be linked to the argument that the youth might lack the
experience and skills to become entrepreneurs. However, this should not discount the fact that they are also
capable at the same time of developing innovative and creative ideas.
A significant challenge to this intervention measure is the considerable barriers and obstacles which the youth
face when establishing businesses. To curb this challenge youth require training, mentorship support, access to
credit and office facilities, support when expanding a business and developing networks. Getting finance for a
start-up business is a particular challenge for young entrepreneurs. Microcredit facilities can also be introduced,
which can be developed to target young people who wish to start their own business.
Expansion in the informal sector needs to be encouraged, thereby creating many opportunities for the selfemployed. Therefore, promoting self-employment in the informal sector poses a potential trade-off between job
creation and job quality. As argued by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), any development of business
opportunities for young people must be carried out in conjunction with improvements in the quality of
employment, or in the decency of work. The ILO goes on to argue that some of the important aspects of
achieving “decent work” include improving access to insurance and social protection, developing health and
safety standards, encouraging worker representation and freedom of association, and eliminating all forms of
discrimination, exploitation and child labour. However, it must also be kept in mind that by achieving such goals,
the very conditions that promote self-employment such as education and skills development be promoted.
Policies need to be simple, cost-effective and targeted
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) suggests that the one major challenge
for governments in Africa, including Namibia is the cost of implementing an active labour market policy. Africa
already invests around 3.3 percent of its GDP in education, and therefore, given the financial constraints faced
by governments, they are not in a position to allocate funding for youth education to such an extent that is
reaches the levels found in developed countries. The challenge is, therefore, to develop youth education and
skills development intervention measures that are simple to implement and cost-effective in the Namibian setting.
It is accepted that closely targeted youth education and skills development programs are more effective than
non-targeted ones. This means that policies have to focus on the youth who are the most disadvantaged, not just
policies for the general population of unemployed people. Furthermore, this paper argues that the best set of
intervention measures for the youth consists of a combination of subsidised work experience and vocational
training. Vocational training alone is considered to be less effective than such a combination because young
people gain skills outside the labour market, which may prove to be inappropriate or not demanded by
employers. Interventions can be as follows:
1. Creating a link between the local labour market and training programmes, focusing on areas which offer
job growth and good employment prospects for young people;
2. A combination of education, skills and on-the-job training;
3. Support services have to be available to assist young people and their families;
4. Monitoring and evaluation is essential in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of programmes.
Establishment of more tertiary institutions
The government needs to establish more public universities, teacher training colleges, technical or vocational
training institution as well as agricultural colleges in order to produce a skilled generation of the youth that can
contribute positively to the development of Namibia. This intervention will produce highly skilled populace but at
the same time, it should be noted that care needs to be taken to avoid a situation where the economy will not be
able to absorb the graduates from these institutions of higher learning.
Career guidance
Career guidance and counselling should also be developed as a nationwide policy, which would be a key driver
in equipping young people with the knowledge of what is required for them to pursue the careers that they
envision. The programmes developed in line with a national strategy on career guidance should also be aimed at
assisting the youth in terms of exposure to the various opportunities that are available in the market.
Conclusion
Government needs to improve the transition to secondary and higher levels of schooling and to shift the focus of
curricula to subjects that are demanded by employers. More targeted and cost-effective active labour market
policies are needed to help mobilize the unemployed and uneducated youth.