Hi Oketch,
Thats a good question to ask. I was puzzled too. Have you heard of Impact sourcing? To some of us, some skills are basic, and obvious. But that obviousness is what
http://www.samaschool.org/ saw in empowering young people have a skill that can sustain them. more information is available on that website. Some very successful ITES-BPO firms in Kenya like
daproim.com,
adept-techno.com , and
www.samasource.org require these skills to keep the grinding stone rolling.
Those basic skills can actually end the perennial unemployment for our youth, without necessarily asking for government help. Outsourcing work is unlimited in the world, if an entrepreneur like the above mentioned sets up shop locally. In 2008, India had revenues of US$10.9 billion from offshore BPO and $30 billion from IT and total BPO. Other locations like Philippines, and South Africa have emerged to take a share of the market. The BPO Industry in the Philippines is employing 1.2 million workers with $25 billion in revenues, while the South African call centre industry has grown by approximately 8% per year since 2003 and it directly employs about 100,000 people, contributing 0.92% to South Africa's (GDP).
You might think these industries do some complicated stuff like what the techies here do, but that is far from the truth. There are many services that the ITES industry can do like Transcription, Data entry, Creative writing, Proof reading, Online research and content management, Social media management (online presence), Email copy, Uploading online posts, Re-purposing, Email copy, Image creation, Book keeping, Website maintenance, Call centres, Sentiment analysis, and content moderation.
Looking at the thousands of youth who leave college every year with various diplomas, and degrees sitting at home, how can we give them opportunities? I'm sure we all know someone out there without a daily gig. Still trying to get a footing.
And while we are at that, if there is anyone who knows how that industry works, please contact me. I have some interest. Sometimes we can be the solution.