“Youth are leaders of today and tomorrow” is a quote that resonated throughout a three-day Webinar entitled ‘Youth participation in economic activities’organised recently by the youth and sports department.
The activity, which was held to commemorate International Youth Day, was officially launched by the Minister for Family, Youth and Sports, Marie Celine Zialor.
In her opening remarks, the minister brought the audience’s attention to the fact that this year’s Youth Festival events are different than those of previous years, partly due to the pandemic and more importantly to give the youths a chance to provide their views on national topics that are more pertinent to them, so that they may have a contribution towards decisions taken on their behalf.
She added that this event will be the first of many more to come with the aim of giving the youths a voice and urged for the participation of youths in this and future similar events.
The webinar saw the participation of two non-governmental organisations namely, UN Youth Seychelles (UNYS) and the Diversity in Intelligence Association. There were also presentations from Financial Education Section from Central Bank, Employment Department, Entrepreneurship and Industry Department and the Ministry of Education. The aim of the webinar was to:
raise the awareness of the youth on education/employment/unemployment/ entrepreneurship and the Covid-19 pandemic impact on them;
sensitise youths on the various NGOs and MDAs actions and strategies in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals and Youth Economic Participation;
engage young people in discussions regarding Youth Economic Participation;
obtain recent information/data on the status of Youth Economic Participation to be able to make informed policy decisions, do better planning, coordinate, research, monitor and evaluate and collaborate with key stakeholders to tackle the issues.
The topics varied from Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where it was highlighted by UNYS that the SDGs, specifically those targeting employment, are very important towards achieving the agenda 2030 for sustainable development.A strong portion of this presentation was the emphasison the need for youths to find innovative and alternative ways and means of participating in the economy.
The Financial Education presentation focused on the various ways that youths can manage and save money for projects and for a more promising future. As for the newly formed Diversity in Intelligence Association, they deliberated on the various types of intelligence and how one can obtain a job or set up their own business with these respective skills.
As for formal employment, presenter Letimie Dookley from the Employment Department elaborated on the different programmes that exist for youths to develop their skills and to be able to join the work force. It is important to note that the Employment Department has a keen group of youths who are enthusiastic to join employment and a lot is being done to target those that are not. The discussion between the Youth and Employment sector present led to an agreement to set up a committee to address youth concerns in relation to formal employment – more specifically to address the concerns around the internship programmes.
The Ministry of Education had a larger panel compared to the other presentations. Their presentations revolved around the different programmes they have in place to gear youths towards their career choices and ideas they have for the future to enhance the efficacy of their support to young people.
Principal secretary John Lesperance, who was one of their presenters, noted that due to school closures, lockdowns, and work from home, the pace of digital transformation has accelerated and as such, urged that parents, students and stakeholders join together and help in assisting the youths to learn new technical and soft skills required to join the workforce. This was emphasised by Marina Jacques through a presentation on Careers Guidance and Jean Alcindor who elaborated on TVET (Technical and Vocational Education & Training).
The Industry and Entrepreneurship Department was the last one to present and conclude the webinars. Their presentation was done by two young and hard-working professionals from their department. Their presentation highlighted the work of the department and different initiatives accessible to young people who wish to start their own businesses or become entrepreneurs.
Although it was not the focus of the webinar, the impact of Covid-19 on Youth Economic Participation was also emphasised in the six presentations done throughout the three days.
Overall, the activity which was a trial event for the youth and sports department, was a success, especially due to the willingness to collaborate from the NGOs and MDAs involved.
Being a pilot event, the youth and sports department has and is still collecting data on the views of young people and on how to ensure a higher success rate of such events in the future as highlighted by Nathalie Didon, the chief policy analyst.
She thanked the section and departments for the hard work and participating in the Webinar.
She also expressed the fact that focus should be on youth doing good and positivity of the youth and their image to entice others to do great things. We often focus too much on the negativity.
The activity being held in the week of International Youth Day and consequently the exam week for most of the schools we sought participation from, meant that we had a lot less youth participation than anticipated. However, these factors will be considered when planning for our next events.
The sessions which were live-streamed on our YouTube Platforms (Youth and Sports Department – Seychelles) is still accessible to the public to watch and send feedback to us as instructed by Natarah Leon, the principal liaison officer who is the staff involved behind the whole concept of the webinar.
Source: Seychelles Nation
