Putting Georgian Youth to Work through Education & Entrepreneurship
It is well known that unemployment is one of the most acute problems in Georgia. Considering the fact that youth represents 22.5% of the population, it is clear how paramount it is to take care of the future generations.
On June 5, the Youth Employment Forum was held at Fabrika, organized by G4G, YES-Georgia, ZRDA Activity in Georgia, Ph International, Crystal and Chemonics, and funded by USAID. The theme? Internships, entrepreneurships, co-financing and providing youngsters aged 15-29 with information about job opportunities.
Of the abovementioned 22.5%, almost a third of young people in Georgia is unemployed. The recent studies suggest that considerable positive growth will not be observed in this regard for some time to come. Youth employment is thus believed to be a pressing issue and major challenge faced by policy and development actors in Georgia.
The objective of the forum was to provide a platform for reflection and discussion in order to assess the achievements and challenges and revisit current practices and strategies for youth employment. It brought together government decision-makers and business representatives, international and local organizations and education experts to discuss solutions and strategies to increase the employability of the youth of Georgia.
The agenda consisted of a number of keynote sessions and panels that reflected the current opportunities and challenges to youth employment and explored potential policy options, reviewing the gaps and lessons learned and discussing progress made towards ensuring youth employment.
The forum not only provided a platform to ensure that the employment issues of Georgian youth are on the policy agenda, but also contributed to the USAID-funded YES-Georgia project’s key goals of advancing and advocating for youth employment issues (a project initiated by Crystal Fund, PH International and MFO Crystal). The co-organizers of the event, USAID G4G and ZRDA, are also actively working on youth programs. The outcome of the event is a Forum Report with the keynote speakers’ speeches. major findings, and recommendations to the government and all stakeholders working towards youth policy development and implementation in Georgia.
Parallel to the Forum, Yes-Georgia, G4G and ZRDA organized the Expo of their projects and the beneficiary companies/organizations presented their ongoing activities and results.
GEORGIA TODAY spoke to Maia Eristavi, Advocacy and Capacity Building Component Leader of G4G: “The USAID-funded project ‘Government for Growth’ coordinated this event and is involved in a youth internship program. We have a very high percentage of youth employment. 47% of our youth are now employed. But it’s not only youth activity- we are also supporting youth for their future employment, advising our beneficiary organizations, mainly businesses and business associations, to hire them in order to continue their career in the private sector. According to our statistics, we feel that ‘employment after internship’ should be developed in the country. This is one of the major components that youth can really use,” she said, adding that the aim of the project is to develop partnership with the private sector and government, supporting the public-private dialogue.
“Youth unemployment is quite an acute issue, and it’s increasing, not decreasing. The project we’re implementing is about youth entrepreneurship and income generation. We needed to focus on state-level policy and participation so that everyone is participating in resolving this problem. They asked questions and received answers from the representatives of the ministries and various departments and sectors. We invited governmental and non-governmental institutions, the business sector, as well as a lot of youth. The project YES-GEORGIA is focusing on the main political issues. It’s about supporting youth entrepreneurship and young people’s internship programs. We support young people to self-employ themselves, but also companies to employ them. We created a young entrepreneurs’ school so that young people aged 16-27, irrespective of their educational background, can participate, including from the regions. This time, 15 municipalities are involved and Tbilisi, too.”
Amanda Tsutskiridze is a young girl living in Kutaisi who, together with her friends, received co-funding to purchase a part of the neighboring forest territory. She plans to develop it into a very popular tourism destination which will include cultural tourism. “We named our territory Green Wood. We bought some land and tents, too. We’ll build Swedish cabins which are energy efficient and healthy.”
GEORGIA TODAY learned that currently, energy and water management professions are at a deficit in the Georgian market. Reportedly, Georgians still think that vocational education is not popular and still prefer to study in economics, business and legal faculties. One of the main messages of the forum was market demand. They might want to become lawyers, but the market cannot tolerate such an abundance. So, they have to be informed first and foremost and make their professional choice afterwards. Thanks to USAID, the program teaches beneficiaries how to become entrepreneurs and later, are co-financed. The attendance at the forum was very high. Let’s hope that it will be fruitful for as many youngsters as possible. Interested parties can received the latest updates on https://www.facebook.com/G4G-305788096275110/
The Forum is expected to have laid the foundation for an annual event that will help coordinate and advance youth employment issues in Georgia.
Maka Lomadze