Phurpa Lhamo | Wangdue

The youth centre in Bajo, Wangdue, conducted training for 21 youth aged between 15 and 28 years on basic skills required for employment and exploring loans from financial institutions to venture into business.

The five-day training that ended yesterday was targeted for youth who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).

Kinley Namgay, 28, who participated in the training, remained unemployed since last year after working in a construction company for a year.

Although offered a job, he said he could not take it because of the bitter experience of working in the private sector, where he was not paid on time. “But I understand the legal issues now. I will discuss it with the employer before taking up the job.”

Kinley Namgay said that officials from the labour ministry emphasised on agreement signing between an employer and an employee.

The training also targeted to develop the capacity of jobseeker and introduce them to potential employers from private and government sectors.

Khuruthang’s youth centre manager Sonam Dorji said that they allocated a day of the five-day training session for the  labour ministry as the ministry had more jobs and training opportunities.

He said that officials from financial institutions and private sectors were invited to talk to the job seekers.

The participants were also introduced to Job-a-Job-a platform to connect jobseekers with employers.

The platform was initiated by Royal Officer for Media (ROM) and has more than 5,000 registered members.

Meanwhile, such training was introduced first in 2017 following a survey done in 2015 by the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Department of Youth and Sports (DYS).

According to UNICEF Bhutan’s Youth and Adolescent Development Officer Sonam Wangchuk, the survey interviewed around 3,000 youth.

He said that the training was one of the many recommendations from the survey.

“Once they are out of the system, they have limited information about what is available in the market and the opportunities given by different ministries.”

Amidst the pandemic, Bhutan’s youth unemployment rate of 11.9 percent in 2019 had also increased to 22.6 percent according to the Labour Force Survey Report (LFS).

The five-day training was conducted by Bajo Youth Center in collaboration with the Youth Center Division. The session is supported by UNICEF.

Edited by Tashi Dema