Illiterate youth poses training challenge

Press, 7 February 1985, Page 13

Illiterate youth poses training challenge

NZPA-AP GENEVA Nearly a third of Third World youth are functional illiterates, posing an “unprecedented and daunting" challenge to train them for jobs, according to the International Labour Organisation.

“Legions of misfits” are growing up in developing fcountries, said an 1.L.0. report. It warned that the industrialised world also will have to provide appropriate training to millions of young unemployed constituting “40 per cent of the jobless in many Western countries.”

It emphasised that for young people “the acquisition of employable skills represents the only valid passport to the future.” In the Third World, almost a third of an over-all youth population of 665 million between the ages of 12 and 17 either had no schooling at all or dropped out before completing the minimum requirements to become functionally literate, “which is a precondition for entering a conventional training programme,” it said.

These disadvantaged youths total 137 million in Asia, 45 million in Africa and 19 million in Latin America, according to the report. Most live in rural and poor urban areas and most are girls, according to the report. “The ensuing training challenge is unprecedented and daunting. It will have to be tackled at a time when

the Third World is plagued by massive unemployment, balance of payments and budget deficits, stunted economic growth and high inflation," the report said. The report said many developing countries have made substantial progress in vocational training, using Tanzania, Egypt, India and Colombia as examples. Tanzania has more than 250 training institutions, making it possible for nationals to fill many jobs formerly held by expatriates, the report said. Industrialised countries face a double challenge until the early 1990 s — absorbing an increasing flow of young people into the labour market and training millions of young unemployed, the report said. There is already “evidence of a long-term trend” towards integrating vocational training into workers’ lives, the report said, giving Japan as an example of a “pace setter.” “Continuous training in fact plays a kej' role in Japan’s industrial strategy, whether it is intended to improve the versatility and mobility of workers or the quality of output,” the report said.

Both industrialised and developed countries have had some success in meeting the “training challenge” by reducing costs of training programmes and by encouraging the private and public sectors to contribute more to them financially, the report said.