The tendency of not having much productive to do in society while not lacking the ability to be productive is referred to as “idle hands” in this piece. Many times, the phrase “idle hands” is intertwined with terminologies such as boredom and unemployment.

Unemployment is the state of being employable, yet not having a job. “Idle hands” or unemployment is sometimes a result of personal inability, while it can also be a result of society’s inability to yield employment opportunities. Individuals can choose not to do anything in prospect, and that’s just it. I believe that this type of individual should not blame society for not creating opportunities for them. Because this is the type of individual who for multiple reasons does not make use of opportunities that society provides.

Society provides free opportunities for youth to upgrade their professional r e sume s t h r o u g h volunteering programmes and free short courses such as RLabs Namibia and StartUp Namibia. Youth can enhance their skill set to at least become employable through such opportunities. Another cause of “idle hands” may be out of an individual’s control, such as society’s inability to yield employment opportunities for its population. For example, an individual can occur as the most employable youth in the country, but pertinent occurring situations in society will not award this individual with employment opportunities. As the saying, “one cannot pour from an empty cup”. In retrospect, employment opportunities are just not available sometimes.

Societal inability to provide employment stems from limited resources and limited innovative thinking to convert and multiply available resources into employment opportunities. For example, there are limited industries in the country now, and a few of the major industries have closed too. If some of the Namibian industries did not close, and rather grew, they would yield more employment opportunities for the Namibian population and youth. The collapse of industries has major effects in long run-on Namibia’s population and the youth most specifically. For example, while a student is studying to attain a sports management qualification, or a promising soccer player, then earlier newspaper headlines are reporting that the Soccer League has closed, and the soccer stadiums are ruled unfit to host soccer matches. Such occurrence already kills hope for the youth to attain employment in the sports industry unless such youth will challenge the status quo and create employment innovatively.

When society does not yield employment opportunities for its population, it becomes an everyday cry for the people to blame society for not providing employment. As a result, statements such as, “government must create jobs for its people” become daily chants. Currently, unemployment is worsened by the trend of the increased number of academic institutions, which automatically accounts for an increasing number of graduates. According to the ‘African Union Targeted Report on Youth Unemployment for the Republic of Namibia’, Namibia recorded satisfying higher education enrollments, and has one of the highest rates of enrolment in Business, Administration and Law compared to other countries in transition and developed countries. The report states that “returns on education, both on the private and the social fronts can be measured by their effect on employment or unemployment. However, the unemployment rate for university graduates was low ie 9.4% until the year 2014 when it increased steeply to 29.2% in the year 2016.”

While academic institutions are increasing, industries are either diminishing, or companies are just closing. Whereas it was supposed to be the other way around- The number of graduates should be proportional to employment opportunities to al l ow eno u g h employment opportunities for the empl oyabl e population.

There are two approaches to solving this predicament of unemployment. The first approach is going for the blame game”, blaming society for not providing employment. This may lead to the government stepping up its game, to boost employment in the country. The second choice, which the writer believes is not the easier option, is in retrospect for individuals to provide employment means for themselves through entrepreneurship. In addition, the writer believes that when companies are employees, they seek utilities from individuals. Individuals with outstanding skill sets tend to provide multiple utilities to companies. Therefore, another best way for youthful graduates is to enhance their skill set. One qualification may not be ideal for employers. Youth need to enhance their skill set with additional utilities such as volunteering, leadership, and mentorship programmes. With that youth will be able to provide more utilities for companies, making them more employable. The overall Namibian youth (age category of 15-34) unemployment rate counted at 46.1% in 2018, according to the ‘African Union Targeted Report on Youth Unemployment for the Republic of Namibia’. What should be done with these skilled graduates from a plethora of fields of study to avoid the obsoleteness of their skills?

Graduates are at risk of their skill sets becoming obsolete when most of them are unemployed or do not have platforms to exercise their skills. Like a Supply Chain Management scenario of what is called obsolete or dead stock. For example, if a specific good on the shelves is not bought for a long time before its durability, then it will run a risk of becoming expired.

The youth, without a doubt, remains the most energetic age group of all. Graduate youth have these skills that they cannot maximize while unemployed. “Idle hands” being the devil’s playground, I wish not for fellow youth to remain idle with vast skills invested in them. In conclusion, for youth to avoid idling their skills: Youth should either hold society accountable to provide employment, such as by pressuring the government to create jobs; increasing their employment utilities, decorating their professional resumes, and being entrepreneurial savvy.