The gap between employment and number of graduates widens annually as more and more students graduate join the job market every year.
Jiwaka Students and Graduates Association Incorporated. (JSAGA), an organisation with goals of building productive human resource with Godly principles has recently been struggling to secure jobs for its members which are part of what it has been doing for over two years.
The challenge faced by graduates in securing jobs is real as thousands of them end up on the streets each year searching for jobs. And the search can be for more than a year.
Some return to villages because they are unable to sustain themselves in the towns and cities.
“Our organisation has received the CVs and other relevant documents from the graduates who are active members of the association and try to engage them with potential employers; however, the chance of securing a job for our graduates is very thin.” Michael Otto Awaliye, the secretary for Jiwaka Students and Graduate Association Inc. said.
Awaliye, who graduated at the University of Papua New Guinea with a Bachelor’s degree in Population Studies and Demography in 2013, has been searching for jobs for years.
Graduates in PNG have now brought the job search to social media hoping any luck might strike.
Online and social media platforms such as Papua New Guinea (PNG) Jobs Network, PNG JOB VACANCIES & JOB SEEKERS, PNG JOB VACANCIES & JOB SEEKERS, PNG Job Vacancy, JOB VACANCIES PNG are flooded with users posting daily in search of jobs.
Social media platforms may not be the standard system to identify unemployment, yet they indicate the growing unemployment in the nation.
PNG’s well known online job seeking platforms like Pngjobseek and PNGworkforce.com have already done well to tackle unemployment, however more is needed to done to solve this issue.
Whilst the government has invested hugely on the Education sector, more jobs have to be created to tolerate the numbers that are churned out of this system.
A Michael Yimbal, who also attained his Bachelor’s Degree in Social Works in UPNG in 2013, said that new policies are needed to accommodate rising unemployed graduates and address unemployment.
Whether or not the next government will address the joblessness and unemployment issues is a concern for many graduates and job seekers.
Image source: Crazy Engineers
