Why are graduates still unemployed?

Have you ever wondered, why are we here in this renowned college? Not to mention, we all forget that we are being sent here basically to learn and grow both physically and mentally to face the reality of the world, beyond the campus of this college. Yes, many of us proudly say that we are the future nation builders, the leaders of tomorrow, but did you ever question, “Why are graduates still unemployed?” How many of us really thought about this? Maybe, one third or even lesser than that. To find an answer to this question, I could not sleep peacfully last night, therefore, I have asked some of our senior graduates regarding this issue, who are still hunting for jobs, working hard day in, day out to earn a living.

Various factors contributing to graduates unemplyment are: Firstly, the attitude of the youth which plays a very crucial role in presenting oneself in front of the interview panel members, secondly, the mismatch of vacancies and course taken, where the announced vacancies are not relevent to the courses taken by the students back in their colleges. Thirdly, due to the increased number of graduates every year, the vacancies are limited thus when driven by the competition, graduates with low marks are being left out as the shortlisting is based on marks. Low marks in college can be related to factors like the choice of stream in class XII, where students choose the stream not based on their interest and aptitude but taking blindly driven by marks and family pressure, affecting performance in college.

Fourthly, graduates are not being able to take up business venture of their own and get involved in entrepreneurship, due to lack of limited funds and lesser scope in Bhutan, thus remaining unemployed, looking for civil service, which takes limited number of graduates every year. Lastly, graduates are not keen in taking so-called the blue collar jobs, which are plenty in private due to low income and lack of dignity of labour. Job security plays an important role in working private, thus discouraging graduates to join private companies as the job in private is not as secure as in government. Not to forget about the corrupt practice in selecting the relatives and known ones for various vacancies leaving behind those graduates from the poor family backgrounds, though they have good marks.

To conclude, unemployment is related to various factors like; the limited vacancy in the civil service, the increased number of graduates leading to intense competition, lack of the entreprenurial skills where many graduates are afraid to take risk, and the mismatch of youth’s job preference and the available opportunities in the market, where the graduates prefer white collar jobs to blue collar and finally, the cases of both seen and unseen cases of nepotism.

Thus, taking this opportunity to write this, I want to convey the message here. Everyone of us  here in this college is due to our good performance and interest or maybe due to the external preconditions being imposed upon by our family, now  it is high time for all of us to learn and grow, pursue the dreams that we want to achieve, not somebody’s. Let us not just seat and act like a poodle toy rather let us be fearless and brave to tackle the challenges that lie beyond this campus, keeping in mind that everything is possible if you do with your heart not being forced upon by someone.