This booth at the youth job fair is for the new private TV station that is scheduled to go on the air next month. Their brilliant slogan -- VTV, your LOCAL channel -- could very well be the death of TVM if the state broadcaster doesn't change its stodgy ways. Already, the private station has picked off several top news talent and producers from TVM, leaving Rameez and the kids to build a news organization that will be able to compete for viewers. The private stations can put on a lot of "foreign" content that is sure to be more popular than what TVM is showing, although they have to be up to 70% local content after a couple of years. This means they will have to do news and current affairs.
This TV booth had the longest line of teen job seekers. The job fair also included exhibits by numerous resorts, the military, the phone company and even the tuna industry. Despite its crippling staff shortage, TVM did NOT have a booth.
I'm told that the current generation of "youth" doesn't feel much urgency to get a job after high school and most continue to live with their parents, even if they get married. There is great competition among the smarter kids for the precious scholarships to overseas colleges and universities because there is no real university in Maldives. What this means is that the educated class in the country generally spends anywhere from one to seven of their formative years somewhere else, so we've noticed a local shortage of talented 18-25 year olds in the hiring pool becaue they are already overseas or planning to go soon.
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