30 per cent of working age unemployed, says the President

President Mohamed Nasheed has said today that job opportunities are not available for 30 per cent of the working age group in the Maldives.

In the inaugural ceremony of a special program devised by the government to open doors for employment for some 8500 youth, by giving them vocational training in various fields, the President said that there is a semi-skilled expatriate working population of 12000 in the Maldives, whose average salary per month is about MVR 10,000. The President then said that these foreign workers had to be used because there are no skilled workers in the country who could be substituted with the foreigners.

“Today’s reality is that we have 600 forklift drivers, and that we have some 12000 semi-skilled foreign employees. We are paying each of them a monthly salary that is higher than MVR 9000 or 10000”, said the President.

“Meanwhile, 30 per cent of our working age group have found no jobs. The main reason why they are unemployed is, according to the observations of the government as well as non-governmental experts, that they do not possess the skills required for the jobs that are out there”, said the President.

The President then observed that lack of skilled workers in the country was one of the main hurdles for the nation’s development. He said that one of the major priorities of the government was to train skilled Maldivian labourers for the job market.

“The government’s aim is to replace expatriate workers with Maldivians. This program, which will create some 8500 jobs, shall be designed to achieve that goal”, the President said.

The special program started today is being conducted by the government in unison with Centre for Career and Technical Education(CCTE), and in the first training program, a hundred participants have been enrolled. CCTE said that all of those who complete the training program would be given jobs at the Centre itself.

The government has decided to spend an amount of MVR 10,000-15,000 on every training in these programs, and in addition to that, every trainee will get a monthly pocket-money of MVR2000 while undergoing the training program.