Joblessness in our small society is one colossal lie. We have employment opportunities myriads in different sectors. But we also have a serious problem. We have not been able to encourage our young people to take the jobs that are made available to them. That’s why youth unemployment is a serious challenges in the country.

But our youth are also enterprising. Only we do not recognise them for all the initiatives they take. Parents also tend to be misguided and vastly uncompromising. Many still view civil service as the ultimate job provider that will guarantee success in the lives of their children. Our classroom education view success and employment not much differently. Dashos, engineers, doctors, and administrators – these are the examples. Anything less than these positions in the society is bad if not a total failure. We need to change this thinking.

The good thing is that we are witnessing gradual change in the way we look at employment. We need to appreciate this shift. With appreciation comes acceptance.

Ugyen Phuntsho, a young boy, has taken up sewage cleaning as an opportunity. He and his small group of friends are doing well. They individually make more money in a month than an average civil servant. What is wonderful about such projects is that money can be made while doing important social service.

The government has initiated quite a number of employment programmes. When a large number of people who come to the urban centres for employment are jobless, it’s not a good sign. Although overseas employment is taking off, we need to look at the ground realities. Will all those who go abroad for employment be considered fully employed when they come back? How will this impact our overall employment picture in the future?

We need to do a lot more. Career expos and awareness is one thing; changing the mindset is a different thing altogether. And that is what we need – showing how differently our young people can engage themselves productively.

Creating employment and engaging our own people will be by far more productive than just holding career expos. We need to look at unemployment from a whole new perspective.

More than telling how, we need to show.

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