Finding work for young Samoans

APIA – The Samoa government, with the help of United Nations agencies, is launching a campaign to get unemployed youth into productive work.

The Samoa National Action PLan on Youth Employment is being implemented by the youth Division of the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development.

It is called the Samoa National Action Plan on Youth Employment or SNAP.

Assistant chief executive Misa Seletuta Pita said 11 per cent of young people are in the labour market and 1850 of them are unemployed.

“Samoa is a very small country and we have very limited employment opportunities in Samoa in terms of the formal sector hence we need to look into other ways of how we can support and promote employment opportunities.

“This is where we capitalise on our strengths in our own communities where we have communal land and where we also have a lot of strengths in the areas of agriculture and fisheries.

“Also in terms of our traditional creative industries and traditional knowledge around handicraft and stuff like that.

“These are our strengths and the action plan is supporting in terms of supports services, business services, business mentoring, business planning aspects, looking into start-up funds and other technical areas of training and even equipment.

“Having that enabling environment, I think that is more realistic for Samoa than concentrating into our formal economy system which can only accommodate a small number of our young people coming out of the education system.

“It’s just a matter of changing approach and strategies engaging with young people.

“At the same time we also see entrepreneurship and enterprise development as one option where we can also provide further support to establish career pathways for these young people coming out of schools with specialised skills and qualifications. “

- RNZI