What are today’s youth seeking? What are their aspirations? Are they looking for jobs where they have to work hard as older generations did or easy-going, more flexible-hour jobs? These thoughts lingered on my mind after attending a recent discussion on this matter and being further provoked when Kussi Amma Sera and her friends discussed [...]

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Youth aspirations

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What are today’s youth seeking? What are their aspirations? Are they looking for jobs where they have to work hard as older generations did or easy-going, more flexible-hour jobs?

These thoughts lingered on my mind after attending a recent discussion on this matter and being further provoked when Kussi Amma Sera and her friends discussed similar issues last Thursday morning.

Accompanied by steaming cups of tea (happily I was also drinking one, while listening to their Margosa tree conversation from the office window), Mabel Rasthiyadu was heard to say: “Hari kammaeli kenek, apey putha (Our son is very lazy).”

Aei? (Why),” asked Serapina. “Yana, yana raekiyawen, masayakata passe natara venawa (Every job he goes for, he quits in one month),” replied Mabel Rasthiyadu.

Ada tarunayanta pahasu rakiya avashyayi (Today’s youth want easy jobs) ,” ventured Kussi Amma Sera.

Here’s what one of the panellists at the Sunday Times Business Club discussion last week on ‘Crisis in Employment’ suggested as key challenges facing society and youth:

n             Young people are not looking for a job for a lifetime.

n             They don’t like rigid structures.

n             They don’t like monotonous, repetitive tasks.

n             They don’t want to remember a lot of details. Information should be available at their fingertips.

n             They want simple, user-friendly IT systems.

n             They want flexibility in work hours, leave, etc.

n They don’t like to work away from their comfort zone.

n They want a rapid rise in career and status to support costly lifestyles.

n The way they learn and apply knowledge is different to earlier generations.

Another panellist said that the reason why young people are bigger risk-takers than their parents or previous generations, is largely because they have chosen to rely on their parents if out of work.

Another reason could be that Sri Lanka is at full employment or the numbers of the unemployed are dwindling.

According to 2017 data, the country’s employed population (in the 18 years and over category) was 8.1 million with almost seven million being in rural areas. This means that nearly 40 per cent of the total population of 21.4 million was employed or doing some kind of work. The employment rate was 95.9 per cent of the labour force with 4.1 per cent being unemployed, which means in actual terms that Sri Lanka has achieved full employment status.

Often job vacancy ads in local newspapers are repeated as there are either no takers or young people present themselves at interviews and when offered the job, don’t turn up on the first day. There is also a tendency to apply for several jobs and opt for the easiest-to-do job if they have several options. On the flipside, there are also hard-working young people particularly in the IT field and start-up community where flexi-working hours are the norm.

The culture of acquiring a three-wheeler and working at a slow pace was also discussed. There are about a million three-wheelers and a sizable number of drivers are young people who did day-jobs, quit and opted to do this as it was less strenuous. In some cases, those with jobs too acquired three-wheelers to work part-time.

A Verite Research study titled ‘Youth Labour Market Assessment 2018’ shows that youth prefer jobs in the public sector as against the private sector. “While youth prefer to work close to home, regardless of whether it is a major town or a rural area, they are also less willing to take up jobs in the private sector than the public sector,” it said.

The study also revealed that while youth show a strong preference for working close to home, the provision of good transport – either public or employer-provided – is the strongest motivator for them to take up jobs that are not located in their current village or town.

“Youth spent an average 21 months searching for employment and approximately 29 per cent of constrained youth (those who are not in the labour force, education or training) showed an interest to work,” according to the study.

Another possible reason for youth reluctance to be serious in seeking employment is dependency on the “Minister’s list” as our Down to Earth columnist has expressed below. In a classic example, he points out how a librarian with a connected degree has a job with a limited contract, while a young person without a degree is appointed to the same job at a higher salary because he or she came from the “Minister’s list” which appears to be a priority in public sector recruitment.

Helicopter parenting or over-parenting where, according to one explanation, means “parents being involved in a child’s life in a way that is over-controlling, over-protecting and over-perfecting, in a way that is in excess of responsible parenting” may be another reason why young people stay longer without jobs than being young, responsible adults and do a job.

Over-parenting also implies parents paying for their children’s education, after acquiring a first degree, even though the individual can do a job while planning to acquire a second degree.

As my thoughts transformed into words being vigorously typed on the computer, the phone rang with Pedris Appo – short for Appuhamy — a retired agriculture expert who does farming, on the line.

“The farming sector is having serious problems these days. Our children are not prepared to do farming and finding labour is very hard. I am told that in some areas, foreign labour is contracted and these people are hard-working and willing to work long hours,” he said, after which we engaged in a long conversation on the unattractiveness of farm jobs and also the crisis arising out of the Sena caterpillar that is destroying cultivations.

Other points that emerged from last week’s ‘Crisis in Employment’ discussion were:

n Earlier there would be a long queue waiting for an interview after applying for a job. Today, recruiters have to go after young people to fill vacancies.

n             Because of the fast culture and fast lifestyle, young people are acquiring a mountain of debt.

Just as I was finishing my column, Kussi Amma Sera walked into the room with a second cup of tea, which I had requested, saying: “Mahattaya, apey lamaya-te rassavak hoyala denna (Sir, find a job for our son).”

Balamu, balamu (Let’s see, let’s see),” I replied, not wanting to get into a longer discourse on the need for her son to be more responsible and find a job, rather than depend on his parents to find one.

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