President Hage Geingob yesterday appointed a former deputy director in the ministry of labour, Felix Zingolo Musukubili, to head the National Youth Service from 1 June.
Musukubili's appointment was announced by presidential spokesperson Alfredo Hengari in a media statement yesterday.
Hengari said Musukubili will fill the position left by Joseph Mukendwa, who turned down the offer after he was appointed last year.
According to Hengari's statement, Musukubili, who previously worked as a deputy director of labour services at the labour ministry, will be charged with the overall efficient management and administration of the youth service.
He will further be expected to render secretarial and administrative services to the board, "in support of its mandate to advise the president".
The National Youth Service (NYS) was established in 1999 as a job creation entity for young people who did not qualify to further their studies.
The organisation runs about 17 multipurpose and five youth skills training centres across the country. Most of these facilities offer training programmes of six months to a year in various fields such as hospitality and information technology.
Other courses on offer are in agriculture, aquaculture and animal husbandry.
The NYS and the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service, under which the NYS falls, have been criticised over the years for offering substandard training and producing unemployable graduates.
The Namibian reported in 2018 that all youth development and multipurpose centres offering training to young people were either not registered or accredited by the Namibia Training Authority (NTA).
This means the qualifications offered, including certificates were not recognised.
After visiting various centres around the country, the parliamentary standing committee on gender, youth and information and communication technology found in 2018 that instructors or training facilitators at these centres were not formally appointed.
There were also no recognised training manuals on which training was based.
In addition, most youth centres are in a dilapidated condition, and training equipment, such as computers and sewing machines purchased by the ministry, "have been broken for years and are piled up at centres" without being repaired.
The committee cited poor maintenance and record-keeping, as well as poor supervision as issues to be addressed, while "none of the centres could provide statistics of the young people they have trained".
