On Tuesday 22nd November 2016, Western Youth MP Hon Mwine Mpaka and Bunya East MP Hon Kyewalabye Majegere moved a motion indulging Parliament to grant them leave and come up with a National Graduate Scheme/Bill.
Supported by all MPs in the house, most notably, Julie Suubi Kinyamatama (Rakai Woman MP), Oscar Omwony Otema (Northern Youth MP), Allan Ssewanyana (Makindye West) and Thomas Tayebwa (Ruhinda North), Parliament granted Hon Mpaka and Hon Majegere leave to draft extensively the Graduate bill.
If tabled & passed by Parliament, the following shall be carried out;
- All Youth after graduation from University will enroll for a six-month internship in either a Gov’t parastatal or Private company.
- The Graduates while on this kind of Internship will be given a stipend/monthly allowance to facilitate them.
- These Interns will receive hands on skills training in the various fields so as to possess extra skills apart from the campus qualifications.
- The interns will also be ideologically trained on patriotism and National Youth Service so as to appreciate the political history of Uganda and its core mission, values and beliefs.
- After internship, the graduates will receive certificates and they are these certificates that they will always attach onto their academic documents while applying for jobs. This will help to do away with the colonial mentality of asking youth for experience of 3-5 years while applying for jobs…. Moreover, when the youth have been jobless for more than even five years. The old guys will no longer be locking out the youth.
- The interns will be given priority while recruiting workers for the company or Gov’t parastatal in which they have been volunteering in. This will help to do away with Nepotism in recruitment and Influx of foreign labourers doing jobs that Ugandans would have done themselves.
Unemployment is not a bed of roses. One can’t solve it overnight but such measures help to do away with it.
The Youth should stand in unison and support our MPs to pass this bill. Unemployment is a menace to the youth.
“Majority of the Greatest men the world has ever seen are those who educated themselves outside the lecture room – Pan Africanist Marcus Garvey
By Osborn Mushabe
