Yogya to host youth convention

Yogya to host youth convention

Some 100 young people from the provinces of Yogyakarta and
Central Java are to attend a two-day convention on youth
employment in Indonesia, to be held on Oct. 16 and Oct. 17 at
Yogyakarta's Muhammadiyah University (UMY).

Titled "Youth Employment in Indonesia: Challenge, Opportunity
and Strategy," the convention is jointly organized by the
International Labor Organization (ILO), the Ministry of Manpower
and Transmigration and the Management Development Center of UMY's
school of economics.

According to the head of the Management Development Center,
Siti Dyah Handayani, the convention was aimed at facilitating the
participation of young people in the formulation and
implementation of government policies on youth employment.

In the convention, participants would engage in group
discussions, focusing on young people's ability to seek jobs,
equal treatment for male and female employees, entrepreneurship
and job creation, she said.

The Yogyakarta convention on youth employment is the second of
its kind in Indonesia. The first was held on Oct. 13 and Oct. 14,
in Surabaya, East Java.

Indonesia recorded a total 6.1 million young unemployed in
2001, or some 76 percent of the country's total unemployed.
Meanwhile, according to an ILO estimate, youth unemployment
worldwide has reached as much as 41 percent of the world's total
unemployment, or some 74 million unemployed young people.

"We have to seek new opportunities for proper and productive
jobs for the young. Otherwise, more young people will not be able
to make best use of their own potential," said ILO Director Alan
Boulton, quoted in a media release made available to The Jakarta
Post on Wednesday. -- JP