Korea jobs reflect unemployment crisis
Get me right. I have no issue with anyone getting a job, let alone in Korea. But I find the idea that our resources can be spent on meeting human resource needs of a much developed country. Politically it sounds right in the sense that someone will have a job, but in broad sense it does not solve the unemployment problem.
Each year our youth are getting out of secondary schools and the future remains so bleak for most of them. Most of the school drop outs live in the rural areas. There are limited places on the poorly public universities. The same scenario can be said of technical colleges. Recently, reports have emerged that there are no funds to administer Trade Test examinations. All that is required to administer Trade Test exams is a mere 25 million kwacha, the cost of one Toyota Prado for a cabinet minister.
Countries like South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore need to be understood very well. Their development model is quite interesting and there is a lot that we can learn from them, not just sending form 4 kids to do some manual jobs. These countries invested heavily in their education system. We seem to have invested heavily in the “maize subsidy”. We could be getting wrong on this footing and entice Koreans with a different carrot, not cheap labour.
While it is politically correct to laud such opportunities, a quick reminder is a brain drain in some of the key sectors in our country. For example, western countries have had to help us pay special allowances for doctors and nurses to ensure that our dysfunctional health system properly limps. Yet, instead of ensuring there is increased intake in nursing schools, the potential candidates, unskilled are headed to Asia to work on basic low paying jobs. Stories of nursing schools being closed are very common. We have struggled to contain the brain drain.
To increase the earning power of any individual, a considerable level of education is required. At the same time, to solve the unemployment problem, jobs have to be created right in the country. Why not entice major Korean conglomerates to invest in this country? It sounds like a crazy idea, but the principle is no different with regard to our quest to attract foreign direct investment. If investors are not coming, the reasons are usually known to us. Lack of qualified personnel, infrequent supply of water and energy, a banking system struggling to modernise and many more. It will not require Koreans or any other friendly nation to solve the job crisis, but ourselves.
Africa is the next big destination in global economic development. We need not be left out by having millions of unskilled youth that will struggle to compete in a modern job market. The Korean initiative is a huge symptom of inadequate investment education. Their young people in Seoul have better paying jobs due to their high skill set, and ours will have to clean the dirt. It’s not worthy a smile at all.
