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Lusa (File photo) / Maputo
The Organisation of Mozambican Workers (OTM-CS) considers that the requirements for English-speaking skills and employment experience imposed by employers in the country, as well as representing an obstacle and danger to development and the future of the country, are unconstitutional, and advocates their abolition.
The issue was presented on Monday in an interview with Diário de Moçambique in Beira by OTM-CS national research coordinator Florêncio Quetane, within the framework of the provincial seminar on the recent Youth and Employment report.
Quetane said that Portuguese was the official language in Mozambique and demands for English language skills and experience were contributing to youth unemployment, when youth in fact constituted the majority of the population. As a result, crime rates and conflicts between companies were elevated.
According to Quetane, official statistics indicate that unemployment stands at 30 percent and affects young first-time applicants, who fail to get a job because of being unable to meet requirements demanded by employers.
He said that activities to coerce the government to reverse this scenario and force private companies to remove these requirements were underway. Trade unionists were of the opinion that the government should introduce the teaching of English as a second official language, in the context of regional integration and globalisation.
The report found that, of 157 public tenders launched in the main newspapers, about 22.3 percent of institutions required professional experience of at least three years, and 21.7 five years, with81 percent subjecting consideration to English language skills.
Quetane said that the trade unionists were studying the implications of these requirements in order to serve as a basis for formulating youth employment policies in Mozambique.
“We have prepared a study on the implications of these requirements and analysed several documents. Three hundred and sixty-two young people were interviewed, representing a sample of 300,000. At this moment, we are disseminating the document to all provinces.”
Quetane said that it was the employers’ job, after hiring labour, to invest in training to increase productivity.
“How can a young graduate have of three to five years’ experience? We believe that the government should intervene and convince private employers to back pre-professional placements in line with existing legislation as an active employment measure and a means of bringing together theoretical and practical knowledge.”
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