“Unemployment: the employable solution”

Youth unemployment won’t be solved by higher education or government policy alone, writes Lyn-Marie Blackman, 29, a Commonwealth Correspondent from Barbados, who urges youth to use a do-it-yourself attitude to solve problems and create jobs.

As a Commonwealth Correspondent, I have always made the attempt to not only highlight the issues of the day but also to bring a solution to said issues.

Youth unemployment has been an issue that has been around since before I was born. It is not a new issue, or one that has not been challenged and tackled by youth and international organizations around the world. However, my call is not to the international or national organizations to give or hand out a job to the youth. Instead, this call is for the youth to define, be innovative and create their own job market.

It is very worrisome seeing youth who possess bachelor, master and PHD qualifications charging the government to provide them with jobs. I personally find that downright laziness, and way too text-bookish. At this present moment I do not possess any of these qualifications, but the qualities I have amassed in my 29 years on this earth include a creative soul, initiative-driven state of mind and visionary capabilities.

When I see articles written by youth who have been educated more extensively than I have encouraging their fellow youth to ask organisations and their governments for jobs, that sends a very strong message that we are educating people to be beggars rather than innovators. I hold the philosophy that a degree can be useful or useless, depending on the holder.

We have so many statistics on international websites that detail the youth unemployment rate for each country.  I am not here to argue the authenticity of the figures, but rather to evoke in the youth a DIY (do-it-yourself) mindset. I want them to go to school make the most of it, come out with their degrees, and be the envy of their respective governments when they amalgamate their acquired skills and start creating new job occupations and job opportunities for themselves and those little ones coming after them.

Many of us write articles about climate change, but have we created or decided upon who will tackle the ills of this issue? Who will become the next innovator to design engineering technology to deal with this energy issue? Or are we going to wait on the governments for that?

We all enjoy social media and we write about cyber bullying, but have we decided upon what piece of software application we can design to curb the issue? Or what brand of computers or mobile device will come with some bio-metric capabilities of detecting the offender? Or what new internet usage regulations can be implemented to police this problem? Or will we just belly-ache on the situation while we attend college?

There are so many things that we as youth can do to change the social landscape of where we live by creating our own job markets and being astute in how we utilize our degrees. This is not an unrealistic feat but a doable one when innovation meets visionary.

photo credit: Setting ideas free via photopin (license)

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About me: I am a conservative and articulate individual with an innate desire to see love, peace and unity triumph. My interests lie in medical research. I enjoy researching medical news from around the world and reporting it in my monthly newsletter entitled L.I.F.E.

I love biomedical science and believe it holds the key to a healthier society. I aspire to become a medical researcher and writer. My focus now is obtaining more exposure for my newsletters: L.I.F.E. and The Believer.

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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commonwealth Youth Programme. Articles are published in a spirit of dialogue, respect and understanding. If you disagree, why not submit a response?
To learn more about becoming a Commonwealth Correspondent please visit: http://www.yourcommonwealth.org/submit-articles/commonwealthcorrespondents/
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