Six
University of Zambia (UNZA) graduates were recently arrested for protesting
because they were unemployed. The wore their gowns and were at Arcades Shopping
Complex with cardboards with various words that expressed the views of their
current situations. The public has not been too kind to them either, many have
condemned their act and provided their various reasons why. They have been
called lazy, dull, illiterate literates, stupid, and even foolish. Some have
even offered them a solution to their problem, start a business. Unfortunately,
if I were them I would be very sceptical taking this advice from a person who
is an employee.
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| Graduates protesting being unemployed |
I
do not think that people who are employed either in government or in the private sector
are in the best position to dish out the advice of others becoming
entrepreneurs. They cannot be calling
people lazy and request them to be entrepreneurial when they wait for the month
end to get paid. They have the security of a job, their pension paid, some even
have health insurance and other benefits that go with the jobs . It is like an
alcoholic telling a fellow alcoholic how to stop drinking. If some employed
people feel that they have a right to dispense this advice, I would suggest
they hand in their resignation letters and join the hustle out there. On the other hand if they were giving advice
on how to get and keep a job then they would be in their realm of expertise. I
am also against this idea of telling people who are unemployed, start a
business. Duh! If it is that simple wouldn't everyone be
doing it. It is like Bill Gates asking the rest of the world why they are not
billionaires, it is not easy.
There
is a tendency to keep telling unemployed people, start a business and make money.
They should go to Kamwala and buy stuff
to sell. They are told to think outside the box or even tear the box
altogether. We tell them that they are
only seeking white collar jobs that is why they are unemployed. This type of
prescriptions do very little to change anyone's situation. This is because
there is always the 'How' element missing. People are told to start a business
but we do not show them how. We do not show them how they should come up with a
business, where to find capital, how to carry out a market research, how to
keep their finances instead all we tell them is start a business. And when
someone starts and the business collapses we wonder why they never try it
again. Business is not a one size fits all kind of arrangement therefore it
cannot be given like a painkiller to everyone who is unemployed.
The
education system has been blamed for training people to be employees. To some
extent that is their job isn't it. The universities and colleges are supposed
to train people to be teachers, nurses, doctors, accountants, engineers. There
are always people who have to work others. Perhaps where our education system
has lacked is stretching one's ability to innovate, creativity is usually
stifled and questioning is rarely entertained. In the situation of the
graduates they have already gone through the education system, the 'damage' has
already been done. We can talk about how wrong the education system is but we
cannot ignore the big elephant in the room, the graduates are unemployed. It is
the problem that needs sorting while we also attempt to rectify the education
system.
The
graduates that protested had a right to protest. There are many like them who
are faced with the challenge of unemployment that many governments are still
grappling with. Prescribing entrepreneurship as the mother of all solutions to
their problems is wrong. Some people do possess the entrepreneurial spirit and
others do not. We cannot be telling everyone who is unemployed to start a
business and that will magically solve the issues. Maybe we should tell them
how to be better job seekers too.
