How do Young People in Rwanda seek Self-Employment in a Tight Labour Market: A Case Study of GASABO District in Kigali-City

Self-employment is claimed to be a viable option for young graduates of vocational education and training in Rwanda. It has been recognised that self-employment involves complex journeys for those who seek it. Those who seek self-employment can influence their economic journeys to be quicker or relatively shorter and it involves many forms of informal orientation and self-directed learning experiences. Workforce development authority as a government agency responsible for VET, takes the forefront initiative to regulate the setting of curriculum standards to match the labour market with the desired competences. VET programmes provides significant inputs for young people to become self-reliant, it opens the opportunities for young people to discover a job which fits their choices and competencies, it ensures decent work for the participants with a fair income, it provides participants with skills to make to make a living. This research is an attempt to assess how young VET graduates seek self-employment in a tight labour market taking Gasabo District as case study. The primary data collected is purely qualitative. The data was collected from thirty five (35) respondents with the help of interview guide. Desk study was also applied in collecting second-ary data. The study findings indicated that young people seeks self-employments through, per-sonal initiatives, family support, support networks. The research findings indicated that the better access one has to social networks the higher chances to become self-employed in a shorter period. Findings also indicated that young people praise Vocational education and training (VET) programmes for developing various competences such as risk taking, wide social networks, problem solving, self-organisation in their daily life. Research results on the challenges young people encounter when seeking self-employment are; limited confidence and experience in the labour market, lack of motivation, lack of recognition of their qualification, lack of financial support into their journeys to self-employment. To improve the steps and journeys young people make to start self-employment. I would argue that, there is a need for a special recognition of young VET graduates who enters the la-bour market. The research finding shows that, the young VET graduates are not recognised in the labour market. It clearly indicated from the findings that young people hardly make it to start self-employment. thus, there is also a need to introduce the active labour market policies in the current labour market of Rwanda. This could also help to smooth the economic journeys of young people to self-employment in a country.