After more than a decade chasing formal work, one graduate has moved from security work to roadside food sales as Botswana struggles to turn qualifications into sustainable jobs.
GAZETTE REPORTER
For more than a decade, one graduate kept trying to secure government employment. She now says she has stopped expecting that opportunity to come.
“I have given up on finding a job with the government. I have tried and tried, but nothing has come,” said the graduate, who asked not to be named.
Her attempts to survive have taken her through work as a security guard and, more recently, into selling food by the roadside.
“I became a security guard because I had to survive. Now I sell food by the roadside. I have a family that depends on me, and I am the breadwinner. It is painful to have qualifications and experience, but still struggle to find a job.”
Plan Runs Out
Her experience sits against an economic model historically anchored by a large public sector. The World Bank says that model is reaching its limits and that Botswana needs stronger private-sector-led growth and job creation.
Its latest assessment puts unemployment at 27.6 percent using its national estimate and identifies limited private-sector opportunities as a structural problem.
For graduates who have spent years searching for formal employment, the pressure is not simply about finding a job. It is about finding a sustainable way to survive.
Jobs Lagging
Preliminary results from the 2024/25 Multi-Topic Household Survey, conducted by Statistics Botswana from November 2024 to November 2025, estimated unemployment at 21 percent, up 3.4 percentage points from the 17.6 percent recorded in 2015/16.
While both the labour force and total employment expanded during the period, employment growth lagged labour-force growth, resulting in persistently high unemployment.
Youth unemployment remained elevated at 28.9 percent in 2024/25, compared with 25.1 percent in 2015/16.
The figures underscore the difficulty of absorbing new entrants into the labour market and the need for employment-intensive growth.
Skills Into Jobs
In its Botswana Economic Update, “Seizing the Moment: How Botswana Can Turn Crisis into Opportunity,” the World Bank recommends four skills-related reforms.
These include employer-led sector skills partnerships; expanded apprenticeships, internships and workplace learning through the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF); greater responsiveness and autonomy for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions; and skills financing that is more equitable, outcomes-driven and pro-poor.
The broader objective is to strengthen private-sector-led growth, diversify the economy, reduce dependence on diamonds and place productive jobs at the centre of Botswana’s development agenda.
Need Is Now
For graduates like the roadside food seller, however, the need is immediate.
“I did not dream of spending my life looking for work or selling food on the roadside. I wanted a job where I could use what I studied and support my family with dignity.”