Minister Peter Siele

The National Internship Programme cannot re-admit those who have exited the programme as there  is a pending list of 5094 applicants awaiting admission.

Labour and Home Affairs Minister Peter Siele told Parliament last week that government was looking at utilising other economic empowerment schemes to address the issue.

Meanwhile Minister  of Youth, Sports and Culture Shaw Kgathi has told parliament that the internship programme was initiated to provide skills and work experience for unemployed first degree graduates and scarce skills diploma holders.

Kgathi said this in response to a question on behalf of the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs.

He said all other unemployed youths including vocational and apprentice qualifications would be covered under the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES).

Kgathi added that the objective of the scheme was to build capacity of youth to enable them to access various economic opportunities, thus improving their livelihood.

“The National Internship Programme will not be extended to include other cohorts as these are covered under the Youth Empowerment Scheme coordinated by the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture,” he said.

MP for Okavango, Bagalatia Arone had wanted to know when the current internship programme will be extended beyond degree holders to include other cohorts of unemployed youth, in view of the fact that unemployment affected all youth including those with diploma, vocational and apprentice qualification.

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