Caught between Scylla and Charybdis: Youth education vis a vis employment in Zimbabwe

Scylla and Charybdis were mythical sea monsters. Later Greek tradition sited them on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the Italian mainland. Scylla was rationalized as a rock shoal (described as a six-headed sea monster) on the Italian side of the strait and Charybdis was a whirlpool off the coast of Sicily. They were regarded as a sea hazard located close enough to each other that they posed an inescapable threat to passing sailors; avoiding Charybdis meant passing too close to Scylla and vice versa. A perfect metaphor for the situation in Zimbabwe pertaining education and employment when youths call for “Building a Better World: Partnering with Youth.”

Our education is not in tandem with the employment opportunities and neither does it provide a basis of formulating self-employment. It is a challenge that young people can hardly deny the current education curricular which is almost irrelevant to our situation. Unlike China and Japan whose education curricular support ones dream from the onset of the education ours provide a closed bases where one should likely look for employment after  a probable 17 year characterised by 7 years in primary, 6 years in high school and 4 years in  tertiary education. The education needs a complete new design to support the current trend that feeds the informal sector.

Employment offers on less than 6% for the entire nation. We are witnessing the bulk of graduates from tertiary institutions becoming employed to LOOKING FOR A JOB that will never materialise. As if that’s not all the government, the prime employer has frizzed recruiting till God knows when. Yet the education curricular presumes one should be employed.

Thus young people are caught between Scylla and Charybdis as they cannot forgo to be educated towards no hope for employment. It’s a terrible situation for one to invest in something that has no prospects but actually have no choice but to invest and lose.

When we articulate on Building a Better World: Partnering with Youth, the education curricular should be in line with moulding young people to be innovative and start their own line of business and employ other young people. There is need to bring young people to the drawing table and map a feasible way forward towards the ultimate emancipation of young people in Zimbabwe. The government should support young graduates through voluntary programmes that will not let see skilled personnel becoming null over time.