The youth of 2020 are growing up through a challenging time.
They will be growing into a future where uncertainty may be common, job opportunities likely to be fewer and with the weight of global sustainability goals on their shoulders. With COVID-19 hitting the world hard, this years World Youth Skills Day illustrates just how important it is that our youth develop their skills and respond to the challenges that will be faced.
Globally, 1 in 5 young people are not engaged in employment, education or training and 3 out of 4 in this group are women. At FutureSense Foundation we see the enormous value in skill development for youth and advocate for this across all our hubs. Our teams in the UK and Australia engage University students in skill development both before they travel to our hubs and whilst overseas, and consistently hear of stories of these students who have been able to gain further employment as a result of their volunteering experience.
In our overseas hubs we focus on improving quality education, particularly looking at conversational English, so students can improve their educational outcomes, taking them into secondary school, some into tertiary education and for many into employment that they’ve gained as a result of their English skills. We also focus on life skills development, looking at how our volunteers can assist teachers and students in IT development, building CV’s, learning about social enterprise and becoming health leaders in their community. These workshops can not only help to build technical skills but soft skills that are crucial for development in life and future employment and training like communication, team work, critical thinking, problem solving and confidence.
We know that through collaboration with our UK and Australian volunteers, our overseas hub teams, community members, local teachers and principals we can work to equip today’s youth with the skills required to manage evolving challenges and building resilience in adapting to future disruptions. Amongst many things that this year has taught us, is the power of education and the huge discrepancies that exist in global education, particularly realised when faced with distance learning. We will continue to work with our partner schools and staff to ensure that as much as possible, students are being provided with quality education that will help to build their skills for the future. We know that #TogetherWeCan.
If you’d like to support our initiatives you can donate to or share our fundraising pages!
