By Mathias Mphande

Youth Net and Counseling (YONECO) says the country should devise ways to curb high levels of youth unemployment.

YONECO Executive Director MacBain Mkandawire said this as Malawi joined the rest of the world in observing International Youth Day 2019 on Monday.

Mkandawire told YFM Online that said self-employment is one key area in which parents and the country should start exploring.

“Issues of employment are real and we can’t run away from them. But I think it gets back to the issue of proper engagement of young people,” Mkandawire said.

He said young people should be engaged to prepare them to have options of self-employment.

“I think this country needs to define what employment is because what people think is that you are going to have a white color, necktie and then go to the office.”

“We probably need also think in terms of how we groom our young people. Are we grooming them to think that employment is only when you go to work in the office?

Mkandawire  said the country can do well if young people are told about self-employment.

“The country needs to open up various channels to deal with that,” he said.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), unemployment rate for the youth in Malawi is at 23 percent, slightly higher than the national unemployment rate which is at 21 percent.