BUJUMBURA August 7th (ABP) – The Ministry of East African Community Affairs, Youth, Sports and Culture organized, on Friday August 4, 2023, in Bujumbura, an awareness workshop for business leaders, as part of the collaboration between UN Migration (IOM), the Economic Empowerment and Youth Employment Program (PAEEJ) and the Burundi Agency for Youth Employment (ABEJ), under the theme: “facilitating the professional integration of young graduates through first job internships”.
On that occasion, the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry responsible for youth, Mr. Séverin Mbarubukeye, indicated that unemployment is a major challenge for young graduates. To that end, the government is making efforts to facilitate young people to have easy access to internships in their first job.
It is in this perspective that the government collaborates with the various partners, which are public and private companies, to facilitate the labor for young people.
Mr. Mbarubukeye pointed out that there are several initiatives that have been made by the government of Burundi. These include the establishment of various institutions such as the PAEEJ; ABEJ and IOM.
Other initiatives are the grouping of young people in cooperatives or associations to tackle the said challenge.
He said that some graduates or young graduates who have done internships in companies, have found permanent employment, which gives courage to interns. He did not fail to point out that young people continue to do a lot of professional internships to build their capacities as those internships give opportunities to receive jobs. He indicated that the objective is to have at least 30% of interns who will have permanent job after their internships.
The Deputy Chief of IOM, Mr. Asima Michael, said that the issue of employment among young graduates is becoming more and more difficult. He called on young people to do professional internships to be able to create their own jobs, building on the skills acquired during the internships carried out.
He noted that the number of internship applicants is high despite the reluctance of companies that find it as a burden for them, not to mention the low level in terms of skills required by companies and the abandonment of the internship following the refusal of encouragement.