by Sumaira

It is undeniable that education, jobs and skills are essential for all young people to thrive and feel empowered. Continuous exposure to new opportunities, jobs and steady education allows young people to follow their aspirations; no matter how challenging they may be.

All schools and teachers must be well equipped and trained to help all young people to succeed within and after school. A simple example of an opportunity could be increasing the number of local employers and businesses being invited into schools to answer questions, provide advice and allow students to understand opportunities around them.

One of the 235,000 responses from the Big Ambition survey suggested that young, underprivileged people should be given better opportunities on a local scale and joint efforts between schools and businesses would be an incredible experience, providing lots of opportunities for lots of students.

Shockingly, only 37% of respondents from the survey said that children knew about apprenticeships, money, university options and career paths. In order to expand, promote and advertise these opportunities, it is also important that schools are able to educate young people on a frequent basis such as via weekly assemblies, posters and announcements.

I think what should be considered for jobs and skills in the future must include multiple new ways of tackling the current challenges. This would mean identifying and addressing factors that prevent youth from accessing employment opportunities.

There needs to be methods to remove these barriers and ensure equal access to job opportunities for all youth. This should be combined with greater investment into education for all students.