25 April 2008
Maputo — 7,500 young Mozambicans will benefit from professional training under a memorandum of understanding signed in Maputo on Friday between the Labour Ministry and the United Nations.
Under the programme it is hoped that 5,000 young people will be able to obtain formal sector jobs, and 2,000 will become self-employed. 500 new jobs should also be created for young disabled people.
The project, signed by Labour Minister Helena Taipo and by the UN Resident Coordinator in Mozambique, Ndolamb Ngokwey, is budgeted at more than 9.5 million US dollars.
Taipo said that the project envisages professional training in planning, implementing, and monitoring programmes, training in entrepreneurship, and in matters of access to micro-credit.
"The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a major partner of the Labour Ministry", she said, "and right from the start has understood that employment and professional training are major challenges for any country or society. Hence it has always encouraged and assisted the Ministry and its social partners (i.e. the trade unions and the employers' associations) in seeking solutions to these problems".
For his part, Ngokwey said this programme hopes to expand an entrepreneurial culture among Mozambican youth. The UN's aim, he added, is to adopt national policies and programmes that can respond to the rapid growth in the number of unemployed young people.
"Our objective must be to ensure that opportunities for decent work are created", he said. "The policies adopted and the programmes implemented should lead to a significant reduction in the current rate of youth unemployment".
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