Project 668 supports the Youth Employment Decade!
By signing an online petition in the framework of the Youth Employment Decade, Project 668 has joined a worldwide initiative to put youth employment on the Global Human Development Agenda of the UN General Assembly.
Youth unemployment concerns not only young people struggling for a fair and stable job position corresponding to their competences but it is also a problem affecting whole societies. Nevertheless, the gravity of the issue is often being overlooked.
This is how the International Campaign for Youth Employment Decade was born. It is a civil society initiative launched in June 2013, with an objective of creating a debate and proposing actions concerning youth unemployment across the world.
The rationale behind the project is self-explanatory. In 2013 the rate of youth unemployment reached an unprecedented level, compared with the last decades. On a global scale the unemployed population aged between 15 and 24 years old reached more than 1,200 million in 2010. Every year, 45 million young people look for their first job, which means that in the next 10 years it will be necessary to create 500 million new jobs to satisfy this demand.
But it is not only about the numbers. Without having a stable job, young people are prone to become frustrated in the long run, which can undermine their trust in social values and waste their potential. Without government-funded work programmes and trainings offered in the private sector, future generations will not be able to enter and boost the job market. This runs counter to the sustainable development goal of the UN.
The Youth Employment Decade sees this crisis as an opportunity for social and economic transformation of organisations and countries. Project 668 fully identifies with the values of the YED, which is why it decided to support the actions in the framework of the initiative by signing the YED petition, which is also available online. Counteracting youth unemployment requires wide-scale actions, including advocating at the highest political level, promoting project’s goals through a variety of communication channels, supporting research and exchange of good practices as well as increasing awareness of the society for more empathy and less selfishness.
Project 668 is also involved in a number of local and European initiatives with the aim of promoting professional development of young people and actively supporting them in “job hunting”, for instance by organising CV cafés, where anybody interested can have their CV checked or by having monthly Apéro meetings. Furthermore, our Facebook page is being updated on a regular basis with useful articles concerning the world of work.
Have a look and express your support. Only together we can make a difference because, according to the motto of Project 668, “sharing is caring”!
by Anna Władyka-Leittretter