From Deskilling to Reskilling: The Role of Technical Skills among the Youth in Kagera Region

Abstract

This paper examines the source and role of skills among the youth in Kagera Region. On the one hand, it employs Burawoy (2015) ' s concept of excommodification to delineate the context within which agricultural commodities decline in their value given the invention of other nonagricultural commodities. On the other hand, the paper uses the Foucault ' s concept of bio-politics to show that technical non-agricultural skills are biopolitical techniques which provide livelihood options but also conceal youth ' s precarious conditions of existence. Such bio-political techniques serve to conceal and reproduce precarious conditions of existence among both the youth and the wider agricultural society in Kagera Region. The main findings are that non-agricultural skills are acquired through apprenticeship, primary and secondary schools, public and private technical colleges, training by NGOs, and they combine formal vocational training and apprenticeship. Arguably, such skills are bio-political because, while enhancing livelihood options for the youth, non-agricultural skills conceal and reproduce precarious conditions of existence among the youth in particular and the agricultural community in Kagera Region. Keywords: Tanzania, Kagera, Youth, Technical Skills, PopulationLucius R. Mugisha, Lecturer, University of Dar es Salaam;  Email: mugishapastory@gmail.com Huruma L. Sigalla Senior Lecturer, University of Dar es Salaam; Email: sigalla@udsm.ac.tz