GRADUANDS CHALLENGED TO CREATE OWN JOBS

By Steven Godfrey Mkweteza
Pact College, a well-known Blantyre based private institution, has graduated a total of 919 students with a call for the graduands to develop an interest of creating their own jobs instead of heaping hopes on companies once finished tertially studies.

The managing director for the institution James Undi challenged the graduands during the 13th graduation ceremony for the college which was in Blantyre.

Undi who said he was concerned with the growing numbers of unemployment in the country, however, said the unemployment gap could be narrowed if the school leavers create their own jobs and become self-reliant.

“It is a fact that the country is facing the scarcity of employment due to the growing number of school leavers who look for employment every year. Therefore, there is a need for the school leavers to develop a culture of engaging themselves in vocational and entreprenuralship skill programs. This is because government and companies alone cannot manage to create jobs for them,” Undi said.

On the other hand, Undi urged government to create a conducive environment for the enterprenuralship programs in the country so as to attract more school leavers into the field by among other things soften the borrowing interest rates at the banks.

“As Pact, we have partnered with other experts to come up with a micro-finance company that will give loans to the students and school leavers to start their own businesses once finished their studies so as to encourage entrepreneurship and self-reliance,” Undi said

Undi, who is also the chairman for the institution, said that the college is considering the introduction of degree courses in due course following requests from the public.

Macbrian Kamtonga, a student representative concurred with Undi, saying school leavers needed to think outside the box by engaging in entrepreneurship.
“There has been a decay in mindset. We have to change things by being entrepreneurs and employ ourselves because things have changed nowadays,” he said

Meanwhile, the managing director disclosed that the institution has acquired land in Lilongwe where they would like to construct a new campus so as to cater for more students across the country.

Speaking at the same event, the president for institute of accountants association in Malawi {ICAM} Henry Chowawa said urged the graduands ply their skills in the country and not to flock to other countries such as South Africa for greener pastures.

He said government and other private sectors needed to create incentives that would woo the school leavers to ply their entrepreneurship skills within the country for economic development.

Chowawa also urged industry players to come up with areas that students should be trained on so as to reduce cases of skills gaps and reduce labor exports.

Pact college school started 1995 and has since 2008, graduated a total of 7,138 students in various disciplines such as accounting, marketing and finance, banking, human resource and business management among others.