Research
Too many young people today are rejecting school as not relevant to their lives. The effective integration of employability and entrepreneurial skills into our schools would go a long way to re-engage some of these disaffected pupils.
Derek Browne, founder and chief executive of Entrepreneurs in Action (EIA)
An April 2009 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) found people aged between 15 and 24 will be unduly affected by the economic crisis. The youth jobless rate is set to rise twice as fast as adult workers.
The OECD report said: "The key priority for the coming months should be to avoid the build-up of a large pool of youth at risk of becoming long-term unemployed".
In Australia, the youth unemployment rate is 9.4%, well above the overall unemployment rate of 5.7%. In regional areas like Wollongong, however, youth unemployment is approaching a frightening 40%.
Youth bear jobless brunt, August 22, 2009, 'The Age' Tim Colebatch and Ben Schneiders
YOUNG Australians have been the main victims of the recession, accounting for all the net 122,000 full-time jobs lost in Australia in the past year, official figures reveal.
Even as economists declare the recession over, experts are warning that youth unemployment is set to get worse... Bureau figures show that among teenage males not in full-time education, unemployment has doubled in a year, from 9.1 per cent to 18.5 per cent.
In Australia, too many young people are slipping into the 'at risk' category. Without effective intervention and support, they face a range of issues including poverty, substance abuse, and mental-illness. Many are from backgrounds of disadvantage, multi-generational unemployment and violence. They are disengaged from education and training options. This all adds up to futures of social exclusion: wasted talents and unhappy lives.
International evidence indicates that the pathway to a positive future, a future of social inclusion, is most often accessed through education and employment.
This research, together with the PhD findings of Chutzpah Factory founder Louise Earnshaw, illustrates that many young people who are labeled as disengaged are in fact eager and able to learn. Some are already applying enterprising talents to ill-advised, even illicit activities.
These young people are suited to a different kind of learning or vocational training - an approach that turns their maverick tendencies into entrepreneurial qualities and shows them how to put these to good use. Often this process also reconnects them with education.
The results of Chutzpah Factory program delivery over the past 7 years give us every reason to believe that many thousands of young people could be connected or re-connected with learning so that they can build positive futures for themselves and contribute to their communities.
Written by Andrea Travers, The Chutzpah Factory, August 2009
