Increasing employment opportunities for youth in Samoa
In an effort to curb youth unemployment in Samoa, young farmers in Samoa are equipping themselves with skills that will help them gain employment in agriculture.
Workshops were held recently at the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (SROS) training facilities to give young farmers guidance and training in value adding and food processing practices. FAO is working SROS to build the capacity of youth in these areas. The participants took part in simple value adding activities using agricultural produce grown locally as a way to generate income.
The training is part of technical cooperation programme – Strengthening capacity of Youth for employment and livelihood in Agriculture – which FAO launched in April 2017 to help youth in Samoa gain employment opportunities in the agriculture sector.
The training covered aspects of food processing including, food legislation, product development/value adding, good manufacturing practices and food handling. Activities also encompassed hands-on training in preservation methods of freezing (taro, bananas, pumpkin and breadfruit), dehydration for producing tea and spices and making jam from papaya and oranges.
According to the Samoa 2012 School to Work Transition Survey, 40.3 percent of youth in Samoa leave school without graduating resulting in very limited opportunities for employment. Young women and men need to develop the knowledge and skills to enter the labour market, and to be provided with additional supporting services to secure employment opportunities in either waged employment or in small business development.
The training is part of the wider United Nation Youth Employment Programme. FAO, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, and Ministry of Women, Community & Social Development – Division for Youth, are collaborating to build the technical capacity of young farmers in various aspects of agriculture.
Other activities are in the pipeline and will be rolled out in the next two months. The first is conducting a pilot trial (production and marketing) for selected value added products for domestic markets. The second will be constructing a vegetable nursery/demonstration plot with the Samoa Federated Farmers Inc. (SFFI). This is a major component of SFFI's training on improved production practices that will begin in April 2017.