Scholarship Essay
If you had the authority to change your community in a positive way, what specific changes
would you make and how would you go about this?
I am highly passionate about improving the lives of young people for the better by way of enabling them to earn a living by utilising their talents. I come from a small Midwest town and I am only too well aware of the hardships that young people go through every day largely because of the high rate of unemployment amongst the youth. The youth, more than any other age group, find it increasingly harder to get jobs, with the financial, construction, and business sectors being seen to have reduced the number of young people they employ (Brignall, 2016). This places the youth at a greater labour market disadvantage in comparison with their peers from other regions (BMG Research, 2015). This is indicative of the failure of the local government to provide jobs for its young people but perhaps more importantly, the inability to give them the right support that they need in order to acquire additional skills, thereby enhancing their employability (Sentance, 2016). If I had the opportunity, I would mobilize the local authorities to initiate transition partnerships aimed at bringing together colleges, local employers, and schools, as well as third-sector organisations so that they can develop policies designed to address the issue of youth unemployment. Specifically, such transition partnerships would involve among other things, encouraging employers to embrace apprenticeship programmes and absorb more youths into the job market. Another benefit of such programmes is that the youths would gain valuable work experience that would either enable them to increase their likelihood of getting a job or even becoming self-employed. Through such partnerships, schools, and colleges would also get the opportunity to start offering career guidance to their students. This might include among others, encouraging students to embrace online courses as these have been shown to allow students to align their educational programmes with their varied circumstances and interests (Kirby, 2013). More importantly, such programmes should act as a platform for schools to adopt curricula that align with real business values.
References
BMG Research (2015). Research highlights youth unemployment 'blackspots'
Brignall, M (2016). Youth unemployment highly regionalised, report shows.
Kirby, M (2013). The winning essay: how to solve youth unemployment.
Sentance, A (2016). Tackling youth unemployment is key to improving our economy.
