Getting employed is arguably the toughest challenge for many graduates. And not just for graduates, getting employed is tough for anyone. What does it mean to be employed anyway? Is it working for someone? A company maybe? Does it mean you’re a sell out if you get employed and don’t become an entrepreneur?

Well, that’s a debate for another day. In my opinion, becoming employed simply means getting the opportunity to use your skills and capabilities to create or add value to something or some activity. The real value that you add or create is what you’re compensated for (what many of us call salary) and what many of us actually want from employment.

Now, I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to use my skills and capabilities to add value to my employer’s activities. However, every now and then I meet friends, family and most recently strangers who reach out to me for support in getting employment.

I really wish I had it in me to support each and everyone of them, and maybe someday I will, but for now maybe I can just suggest something. Innovation. Just Innovation. Innovation In the sense of inventing & commercializing ideas.

Now who is supposed to innovate and why should they innovate and how does all this fit into our main topic of employment? These are things we should be asking ourselves at every level in both the Public and Private sectors. This series will dive deeper into these topics to shed light on how innovation can change the unemployment scene in Tanzania and more importantly create opportunities for our youth to flourish and live decent lives.

I’ll leave it here for now. Next time I’ll expand on this and I hope that as the series unfolds we can all reach a point where we have better understanding of these issues and are able to collectively improve the employment prospects of our youth through innovation. Thank you for reading, join me again next time.