QUESTION

INDIVIDUAL COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENT

In a bid to growing the industrial sector in Uganda as one of the long-term solution to the
increasing unemployment, the government through the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) has
encouraged Direct Foreign Investment in the country. However, most foreign investors have
continued to express their discomfort concerning escalating levels of labour shortage in the
country thus relying on their expensively imported technical labour.
a) In your opinion, what factors could explain this situation in the country where majority of the
population in the working group are educated and unemployed yet employers are also
complaining of labour shortage in the country.
b) Propose feasible short-term, medium-term and long-term Human Resource Plans at the
national level that could be employed to address the above (a) labour-force challenge in the
country.
Instructions
Reflecting on the above manpower issues raised in the above narrative, prepare a policy paper to
be presented in class for discussion.
International Labour Organization (ILO, 2009) defines unemployment as the numbers of the
economically active population who are without work but available for and seeking work,
including people who have lost their jobs and those who have voluntarily left work.
Unemployment stands at between 64% and 70%, and about 400,000 youths are released annually
into the job market to compete for approximately 9,000 available jobs. About 30% of the youths
who are institutionally qualified in Uganda are unable to find jobs, and the situation is even
worse for semiskilled and unskilled youths. Youths who remain unemployed or underemployed
and do not exploit their full potential, are often associated with high incidences of drug abuse
and gambling. Over education and over-skills coexist with under education and under-skills, and
increasingly with skills obsolescence brought about by long-term unemployment. Such a
mismatch makes solutions to the youth employment crisis more difficult to find and more - time
consuming to implement (ILO, 2013).
Below are the factors explaining unemployment;
Lack of parental guidance and career guidance at school: The lack of parental guidance (both in
relation to a youth’s career but also in general) has been mentioned as important reason for youth
unemployment as a lot of Ugandan parents produce too many children so that they cannot
properly take care of them, especially when it comes to paying the fees for education (Fontes
Foundation, 2014), In Ugandan children do not get the chance to develop and practice the
abilities where there are good at. Certain activities (like playing music instruments and dancing)
are considered a waste of time in the eyes of the family and would have never been allowed to
focus on educational and professional training (Fontes Foundation, 2014). As the parents are
paying for the education of their children, they decide what is best for them and send them to
study law or ICT as they think that this is more promising to make a living according to their
knowledge, regardless of the interests of their children (Fontes Foundation, 2014).

Negative attitude of youth: Very often youth have a negative attitude towards work, which
expresses itself in general laziness (to find a job and to work), a lack of motivation to work, a
lack of ambition and self-drive to achieve something and the lack of a clear vision for life (YAI,
2011 and YBU, 2014). According to (YAI, 2011 and YBU, 2014), youth become too picky
regarding certain jobs. They all want to work in offices to avoid hard physical labour. Youth are
looking for quick money without making an effort which is why they are turning towards sports
betting, which is a huge social problem in Uganda (YAI, 2011 and YBU, 2014). Therefore, a lot
of youth in Uganda, still have the mentality “of being given instead of working for themselves
and earning a living which had always resulted into the hand that begs!” (YAI, 2011 and YBU,
2014).
Inadequate job matching; According to reports of ILO, inadequate job matching for instance,
information gap between youth and employers is indeed a problem that unemployed youth is
facing, especially the disadvantaged one (ILO, 2020). There is a lack of information flow
between the job seekers and hiring employers in a lot of African countries (African Economic
Outlook, 2018). This is especially apparent for youth with little education as they seem to know
less about where to look for jobs and therefore need more help finding one. This again causes a
challenge as it has been shown that job search assistance works mainly for individuals with
sufficient education and better labour market prospects. Another barrier that the youth is facing
in this regard is that a lot of job seekers are unable to communicate or signal their level of skills
to a potential employer.

Skill mismatch between the education system and employers’ expectations: The mismatch
between the type of education provided at schools and the requirements of the labour market is a
reason that has been both mentioned by the academic literature (Kellow 2010). It has been stated
that the Ugandan school system is far too theoretical and is not preparing the students in an
adequate way to find a job after graduation as they lack employable skills, even though the job
falls into their field of studies (ILO, 2018). According to Haile (2003), he observed in his
research, a lot of the unemployed youth in urban areas went through the best education system
that a country like Uganda can provide which is a sign that the education and skills provided at
school is not relevant enough for employers Haile (2018). Kellow (2010) comes to a similar
conclusion as he shows that an increase in education (high school) comes with higher
unemployment rates for this youth. As Peter (2013) points it out appropriately, high schools and
universities are like “exam factories, concentrating their energies on securing passes at A grade
in exams and have given too little attention to the labour market requirements” (Peter, 2013).

The inadequate or insufficient use of workers occupational skills: this reason gives way to the
identification of persons in skill-related inadequate employment, who are persons who during the
reference week wanted to change their current employment situation in order to use their
occupational skills more fully and were available to do so. This form of inadequate employment
can be interpreted as a job with tasks that require greater complexity and diversity than the
current job.
The inadequate income in the current job(s): this reasons gives way to persons in income-related
inadequate employment, who during the reference week wanted and were available to change
their current employment situations in order to increase their income and were available to do so.
Ideally, the potential for earning more should be linked to an improved work organization,
productivity, tools, equipment or training or in the infrastructure.

Excessive hours of work: this reason gives way to persons in inadequate employment related to
excessive hours, who during the reference week wanted to work less hours than they worked
during the reference week (in all their jobs). Persons may want to have another job with less
hours of work or decrease the hours worked in the current job. In both cases, it should be clear
that the decrease in the hours worked implies a reduction in income earned. As with income-
related inadequate employment, countries may want to use a threshold for hours of work, under
which persons are excluded.

Skill-related employment, as mentioned earlier, is most often the reflection of mismatch of

occupational skills, but also even a highly skilled, well-paid employee can be underemployed if
his abilities and knowledge aren’t consistently put to good use. There are probably as many
reasons why this might occur as there are organizations, but here are a few common ones (Abel
and Deitz, 2016): employees have gained education and skills faster than the organization can
recognize it or capitalize on it; the organization’s processes and procedures prevent progress that
would necessitate employees using more advanced skills; managers are not providing
opportunities for employees to use their abilities.

Discriminative and bias practices in the labour market are likewise amongst the determinants of
employment and often increase the likelihood of underemployment as maintained by Li et al.
(2015). For instance, during the employment screening process if a candidate’s work history
demonstrates various occupations changes (also known as job hopping) or long lengths of
joblessness, their human capital may be undervalued, and thus end up being underemployed.
Wilkins (2006) finds comparable results, that being without work for a long time fuels the
chances of being underemployed.
Career guidance is another factor that has been connected to employment, where its argue to help
with the effective functioning of labour and work. The longer young people stay in education and
training and the more complex labour markets become, the more important career guidance
becomes (Juan et al, 2018). According to Cedefop (2016) career guidance can also provide
labour market and economic information that can assist students into making better career
choices that will contribute to their own development and better employment prospects. It could
prevent many students from graduation into courses irrelevant to the needs of the labour market,
thereby becoming prone to vulnerable employment.
Feasible short-term, medium-term and long-term human resource plans to address the
above (a) labour-force challenge in the country.

Support to enterprise development; Recognizing that micro-small and medium-sized enterprises

should be considerable source of employment in Uganda; the government should promote the
culture of “self-employment” through microfinance. This kind of intervention dates back to the
late 1990s when the government introduced the Youth Entrepreneurial Scheme (YES). The YES
program was designed as a loan scheme for youth who wished to venture into business. The
scheme did not perform as anticipated because it was largely perceived as a political tool. While
it was meant to be a loan, it ended up being a handout with very low (if any) recoveries made.

Building skills and equipping labor with requisite knowledge; another major intervention
undertaken by the government should relate to skills development for young people. Upon
recognizing that youth lack employable skills or possess skills that are irrelevant in the current
job market, the government should focus on a phased curriculum review at all levels of education
with a focus on business, technical, vocational education and training (BTVET).

Better education: In order to fight unemployment, it is crucial to improve education levels of

people so that it will be easier for them to find a job. This education should start early in school
and teachers should pay close attention and take care of every child to ensure good educational
progress. Moreover, children from families that do not care about their education at all should be
supported by community programs and financial aid so that these children also have a fair
chance to increase their level of education and find a good job once they turn into adults.
Motivation programs: Jobless people who are not willing to work at all have to be incentivized to
get a job. This could mean that their social security levels may be lowered if they do not take
action to go back to work. It could also mean that these people are forced into programs in which
they get taught about the advantages of getting out of unemployment so they have a broader
perspective on the chances of employment and might be more willing to search for a job.

Investing in effective employment services; a successful activation strategy will require effective
employment services. Employment services are at the core of the mutual obligations approach
but this requires maintaining a close contact with people on benefits in order to deliver the
necessary support services to them and to monitor their job search behavior so as to ensure that
efforts are being made to return to work. As part of an effort to improve service delivery, some
countries have made increasing use of private employment agencies. This could be particularly
relevant in emerging economies, where the capacity of the public employment services is
limited. The effectiveness of both public and private employment services can be improved
through performance management based on measures of employment outcomes that are adjusted
for jobseeker and local labour market characteristics.

Improving incentives to create formal jobs tackling informality requires a coherent and
comprehensive set of policies. These include economic support measures to boost incomes,
productivity, access to finance, infrastructure and markets, an enabling legal and regulatory
framework with adapted and effective enforcement mechanisms and extension of social
protection coverage. Working in informal jobs can take many forms and reflects a variety of
barriers to the creation of formal jobs. Thus, co-ordinated action across a number of fronts is
necessary to reduce informal employment. These need to combine incentives to transit to
formality with improved governance and enforcement of compliance, including through
sanctions.

Unemployment should be recognized as a critical labour and organizational problem and

therefore changes are needed both in public labour policy (measures that encourage job creation),
education policies (developing skills and programmes that are in line with labour market needs),
and internal human resource policies (job design and analysis, recruitment and selection, training
and development). There are significant hidden costs of skill- and time-related underemployment
in every organization but also on the national level. The companies and governments who
acknowledge that and take actions to minimize those costs can expect more engaged employees
and higher performance outcomes that will result in higher general productivity level.

Promoting entrepreneurs and the self-employed should provide new sources of employment. It
has been estimated that entrepreneurial businesses account for a large share of all employment in
the country. Fostering entrepreneurship is therefore an important element of any strategy aimed
at tackling unemployment, and could be particularly so for certain groups such as women, young
people, seniors, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, who are currently under-
represented in entrepreneurship and self-employment. Promoting entrepreneurship and self-
employment will require simplified business regulations, particularly for micro firms, and social
security systems that do not discourage business creation and self-employment. Entrepreneurship
skills also need to be developed through extending and improving entrepreneurship education,
offering stand-alone entrepreneurship training courses, and offering advice and coaching using
mentors from the same communities.

The responsiveness of the education system to the needs of the labour market has to be improved
and requires close collaboration between employers, trade unions and public authorities.
Preparing young people for a successful entry into the labour market requires close cooperation
between public and private sectors so that education and training can respond quickly to labour
market needs and provide suitable opportunities to learn in the workplace. Guiding students in
their choices of field of study, promoting their transition from school to work and maintaining
and improving skills throughout the working life will ensure that the full potential of each
individual’s skills is exploited and that the skill needs of enterprises are effectively met. Many
sectors are characterized by rapid transformations, rendering it increasingly important to better
prepare guidance workers and counselors to understand labour market information and job
demands. This should be part of the policy agenda for responsive education and training.

The creators of education policies should concentrate on developing skills and programmes that
are in line with labour market changes and labour characteristics. Pratomo (2015) confirms that it
is possible that workers with higher education tend to be underemployed which shows the
inability of the labour market to absorb educated workers optimally. The reason for this can be
the mismatch between the education system and the labour market. The results of the research
are relevant for internal human resource policy makers who should address the problem of
underemployment when considering job design and analysis, recruitment and selection, training
and development.
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