Contribution Of Art Centers To Youth Employment In Tanzania A Case Of Chamwino Art Center In Chamwino District

ABSTRACT

The core problem facing youth in Tanzania is unemployment. The youth constitute 60 % of

all people who are unemployed. There is lack of job opportunities in urban areas, and

underutilization of the majority of the national labour force in the rural areas (Youth

Development Tanzania, 2006).The factors that can influence youth to be involved in Art

centers are not known, Therefore, this study specifically examined youth skills toward Art

Centers as a source of employment, also examined the social and economic impacts of Art

Centers to youth livelihood and Assessed or investigated the initiatives, strategies and

measures taken by Art Centers on providing skills for employment to youth.

Simple random procedure was used to select 90 representative samples from Chamwino Art

center , Chamwino District council, Ministry of Information, youth, Culture and Sports,

National Art council and older people. Data for this study was collected from the 90

respondents using questionnaires. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS computer

software to obtain means, frequency and percentages.

The results indicated that major factors that influence youth engagement in Art centers are

age, sex, level of education, marital status, Assets and economic activities. Moreover skills

or awareness and perception towards Art centers varies according to skills and experience in

Art activities for youth who are members of Art Centers and those non-members. Therefore,

the options to increase youth engagement in Art centers will include provision of Capital,

Space for art activities, Working equipment, better price for Art products and creating

awareness among youth on the importance of Art activities in art centers for employment

provision. This study recommends that Parents should encourage their children to practice art

activities because charity begins at home, the government and other stakeholders that provide

institutional support services for Art activities should extend their services to the youth art

centers, the government should revise the education curriculum to meet the need for Arts

activities( creative industry) by emphasizing Art subjects from primary to university.