Is ICT skilling the solution to end youth unemployment?

Margaret Naddamba is a farmer and social worker. After completion of her A-level studies in 2018, the family lacked funds to sponsor her for university.

She enrolled with an NGO called BlueStar Network in Masaka. While there, she was trained in data collection in sexual and reproductive health and she began using her expertise to traverse various areas in Masaka. However, due to the vast area of the community, she found it difficult to reach out to the targeted youth.

Matters were not helped with the Covid-19 pandemic which crippled her movements. It is from this dire experience that she resorted to farming, growing matooke and vegetables. Still, she struggled to connect her produce with the market.

“It is frustrating to wait for customers to buy from you. Each passing day the matooke is not sold increases anxiety but it is worse for vegetables because you have to clear the whole produce within a day,” she recalls.

Her fortunes changed early this year when she joined 200 other youths for a weeklong skilling session in information and communication technologies (ICT) and multimedia for Masaka and Bukomansimbi.

Organised by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), through a partnership with Prime Time Communications, more than 200 youths benefitted from sessions by facilitators such as Moses Kiboneka, popularly known as Uncle Mo, and other media personalities as well as officials from the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB). All it took for one to participate was having a smartphone plus having a good and positive attitude.

“My biggest takeaway from the sessions is learning how to use phone apps for business,” she says.
“I was introduced to the app called Kinemaster that helps even a basic person like me to edit audios and videos to promote my business. All I do now is to use my phone to make recording, which I share with friends in groups on WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok. As I speak, I have several orders ready yet I haven’t even harvested the matooke.”

Indeed, work has become so effortless for Naddamba that she no longer needs to sit to wait for customers. In fact, she has even returned to her first work as a data collector after realizing she can use her phone to collect the data.

“I now organize the youths in groups on the phone and can reach out to all of them with a single questionnaire and get feedback in real time,” she says.

Naddamba is not the only one whose mind was opened from the trainings. In Bukomansimbi district, Anne Nakabira, a communications consultant, reluctantly joined the free skilling sessions at the persuasion of Fred Kayiira Nyenje, the LC-V chairperson of Bukomansimbi.

“I generate content that I share on social media platforms to influence products for various companies but I had never had a breakthrough until I joined the sessions,” she says.

“I was very impressed to meet and interact with Uncle Mo, and his tips on how to leverage social media as a business were fulfilling. I learnt that you have to sit down and meticulously plan, note down a script, and learn from the best in the trade. I also set up my company after they took us through the process and also learnt about the importance of copyright. In fact, the views of my social media skits have improved more than 10 times.”

The testimonies of Naddamba and Nakabira were just two of the dozens exhibited by the participants at the end of the sessions. On his part, Nyenje thanked UCC and Prime Time Communications for the opportunity offered to skill the youth of Bukomansimbi.

“I urge all the participants to use the skills they have acquired to improve their livelihoods. The world is digital regardless of where you are and this is an opportunity for us to fully participate in the digital economy,” he said.

“We request UCC and Prime Time Communications to also bring more such skilling programs not just for the youths but also others so that they aren’t left out. In the meantime, I urge all the participants to pass on the skills to others so that we all develop together. If we all get skilled, the better for everyone.”

CONTEXT

The concept is part of UCC’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) interventions to the youth, who form the biggest demographic in the country at 79 per cent.

According to the last Uganda National Labour Force Survey conducted in 2021 by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos), approximately 9.3 million individuals between the ages of 18 and 30, accounting for at least 41% of the youth population, are not participating in any productive activities.

Therefore, the hope is that through such trainings, many youths will attain skills to fend for themselves and transform their livelihoods. In the six-month period, organisers are targeting to skill at least 100 youths per district, making it 2,000 in total.

It can be argued that whereas digital skilling cannot be the magic bullet to end youth unemployment, the sessions showed that it is a crucial component in empowering young people with the tools and opportunities they need to succeed in the modern workforce.

ABOUT THE TRAINING

According to Dennis Jjuuko, one of the organisers, the six-month trainings that started in February target the youth in basic ICT skills and multimedia.

“The intention is to stimulate demand for ICT, enhance youth productivity using mobile phones and stimulating local content production as a way to combat youth unemployment,” he says.

Under the training, participants are taken through mobile literacy, mobile communication tools, mobile productivity apps, internet safety and digital citizenship on mobile, multimedia creation and editing on mobile, social media for personal and professional use, digital entrepreneurship on mobile, job searching, career development, finding and creating a market for your products and services, mobile apps for learning and skill development.

So far, the trainings are being held in 20 districts countrywide, including Masaka, Bukomansimbi, Kalungu, Lwengo and Sembabule. Others are Jinja, Iganga, Bukedea, Tororo and Mbale, Mbarara, Ntungamo, Bushenyi, Rukungiri and Kanungu, Kasese, Hoima, Masindi, Kibale and Kabarole, Pakwach, Nebbi, Arua, Yumbe and Moyo.