September 2014

In South Sudan, the situation remains unstable since the outbreak of the conflict in December 2012. Under this circumstance, JCCP decided to carry out a needs assessment in relation to its vocational training program. During April and May 2014, JCCP interviewed graduates of the vocational training, managers of hotels and restaurants and the director of the Vocational Training Department in the Ministry of Labor. The interview results revealed challenges of employment in the service industry.

In hotels and restaurants, the number of customers continues to decrease due to the on-going conflict. Approximately 40 percent of the former trainees were unemployed owing to the worsening business conditions of their previous work places.

John is one of our former trainees. He told us “For a while, I worked at a hotel as a waiter. When the conflict began, we lost customers and the hotel started to lay off employees and I lost my job too. They said they will rehire me a week later, but five months later they have not yet started rehiring. I applied to other hotels but the response was that I should wait until the business condition improves. I would like to work in a hotel again because that is what I learned in the vocational training”.

The director of the Vocational Training Department confirmed that sales have generally fallen in the service industry because the number of foreign customers is decreasing. In addition, new investments have not been seen since the conflict started.
It is unlikely the employment situation will improve and the chances of new hotels and restaurants opening in the near future are low. Currently, JCCP staff is not able to enter South Sudan and it is difficult to provide detailed advice to our former trainees. Therefore, JCCP has decided to suspend the vocational training for the time being.

In August 2014, JCCP provided shirts for the unemployed trainees, since some of them had strong desires to work. The shirts will help with their job hunting by keeping a presentable image, in addition to being a message of support to encourage them to get through this difficult situation.

* Names of individuals have been changed to protect their privacy.

* This project was implemented through private funds.