Don Robotham, Contributor

As we enter another 'Heroes' weekend, the acute problems of the society are with us more seriously than ever. The continuously sliding dollar - a vote of no confidence in our new Finance Minister - the tragedy of murder and police brutality, the crisis of our youth, on top of this dengue fever, malaria and leptospirosis and flooding - the conjunction of events has a biblical quality imparting a sombre quality to our Heroes Day awards.

Suggestions, born of this understandable despair, have been made to draft the youth into a semi-military youth corps. But this would ruin our army - our best public institution, which is playing a crucial role in our national security. The cost would be enormous: Lift-Up Jamaica, which ran for only 18 months and provided only $2,500 per week for 40,000 youth, cost US$60 million, or over J$4.2 billion. Moreover, training does not 'create jobs'. Giving semi-military training to thousands of youth who remain unemployed is a formula for serious disaster.

Low wage employment

What exactly is the crisis of our youth? Most people assume that the main problem is unemployment. Unemployment is a serious problem but it is NOT the primary economic problem facing our youth. The bigger problem is the crisis of low-wage employment. Our youth work in the lowest skilled and most insecure sectors of our labour market, including small farming.

The numbers tell the story these are just rough estimates. There are about 665,000 youth in the 15-29 age group. Official data give a lower figure but I would estimate that about 110,000 of these are unemployed. Let us add another 90,000 to this group to represent the so-called 'discouraged' - again an estimate on the high side. This will give us a total figure of about 200,000 people in the 15-29 age group as unemployed. This is a whole lot of youth but this still leaves 445,000 youth employed. In other words, our youth population breaks down like this: about 30 per cent outright unemployed; about 70 per cent employed. If this is correct, how then can we make youth policy based primarily or solely on the 30 per cent unemployed?

Why should we be concerned with these lucky 445,000 who are working? The reason is this: Probably about 350,000 of this larger group of working youth find themselves in a position of serious economic hardship.

Economic heap

These employed youth are at the bottom of the economic heap. As I have pointed out before, a mechanic with five years experience working in a relatively modern uptown garage gets J$11,000 per fortnight in take-home pay. Do you know what a young welder, electrician or mason gets? Supermarket packers get even less. Often no NIS or NHT is paid. They have no health insurance. They work long hours in an unregulated environment. They have no career path and face a bleak future. They are deeply demoralised.

It is the negative example which such working youth present which leads the 'discouraged' unemployed to conclude that it makes no sense to work hard and get a trade and to enter the formal economy. If, therefore, you want to change the outlook of the unemployed group, you have first to change the standing of the low-waged group, which is nearly double in size.

These 350,000 hard-working youth who have good values and attitudes are mocked by the lumpen as working for 'monkey money'. They are not in a position to act as role models - indeed, they are often regarded as negative role models - examples of a 'slave' mentality to be avoided at all costs. Far better to become a DJ or to move into other activities of dubious legality.

While not ignoring the unemployed, my strategy for addressing the crisis of the youth begins by addressing the problems of the 350,000 working poor youth first. Unemployed youth will never be motivated to do the hard work to acquire a skill, much less to master English, if when they look at employed youth all they see is a mass of people leading a hand-to-mouth existence. Moreover, this approach has the huge economic advantage that it does not depend on 'job creation.' These youth are already employed.

A programme for employed youth

In devising such a programme we must be realistic and not waste everybody's time suggesting programmes which we know cannot be financed. Bearing that in mind, here are three key elements:

First, the entire youth portfolio needs to be taken out of a ministry and put in a special executive agency. A leading figure from the private sector, or one of our outstanding public sector managers such as Robert Bryan, needs to be appointed Youth Czar. This agency would be free to seek private and multilateral funds from home and abroad. In short, what we would establish is a new public-private partnership - a Youth Foundation under which all programmes and activities would come. If we could do it for Cricket World Cup surely we can do it for our youth?

Second, a series of annual Governor-General Awards for young employed Jamaicans (15-29) in the following categories: best young farmer; best young welder; best young mechanic; best young electrician; best young painter; best young refrigeration technician; best young carpenter; best young plumber; best young mason - feel free to add to the list! The awards would be presented each year at the annual Heroes Day Awards at King's House.

Some awards will have to be set aside for young males only - our endangered species, desperately in need of affirmative action set-asides. Otherwise young women will win them all! The media would be mobilised to play a central part, giving widespread publicity and prestige to these awards on a year-long basis.

The awards should carry a cash value of J$1,000,000 each (less than US$15,000!) If we can find J$500,000 each to crown the Dancehall Queen and King in April 2008, surely we can find this money for a far more worthy cause? This is where the private sector needs to step up to the plate.

Third, a programme of certification and skill enhancement for the young working poor. This would include a programme in English. The aim of these programmes would be to move unskilled youth to the semi-skilled level and to move semi-skilled youth to the skilled level.

Increases in productivity

This programme would be broad and allow for increases in wage levels upon completion of certification. But wage levels cannot be raised without real increases in productivity. That would be our real goal. We can adopt programmes organised in Ghana by the World Bank and in Benin by the Swiss development cooperation agency to our needs here in Jamaica.

We have to go for the mid-range skills set as we cannot compete as a low-wage destination with Africa and Asia and we don't have the foundation to go for high level skills. Right now, for example, a firm in Ghana (per capita income US$550) has won a contract to process traffic tickets in New York City. Our relatively higher wage levels (per capita income US$4,100) put us out of that particular investment race.

Taken together, the steps mentioned above would cost about J$150 million - a bit more than US$2.1 million per year. But the proposed executive agency could raise funds to more than double this budget. The biggest constraint would not be the money. It would be the grave shortage of trainers in the required fields. Our first task, therefore, must be to train the trainers.

The way to reach the hearts and minds of the unemployed is to reach the employed first. We have to change the entire atmosphere surrounding education, skills development and work in Jamaica. Respect for education and discipline must be restored. A comprehensive effort must be mounted. The media and all civil society institutions have a major role to play. Let us use this Heroes weekend to begin this process. Time is not on our side.