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Saturday May 04, 2024
Monday, 18 November 2013 00:26 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Youth to the forefront
We witness the rise of youth in the workplaces. According to the Commonwealth Youth Leaders Forum, young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults, and over 75 million young people worldwide are looking for work.
Although at first the issue may seem inextricably linked to the financial crisis, the International Labour Organization (ILO) shows that this is not the case. Global youth unemployment peaked in 2002 at 13.1% and was actually at its lowest in 2007, at 11.6%. However, this is not reflective of world trends: Developed countries’ unemployment rates far outstrip those of the world as a whole.
Adam Lenton, a UK-based foreign policy writer, observes that such trends have some knock-on effects for youth in the developed world. So-called ‘occupational downgrading’ – workers taking on jobs below their level of qualification – is a great concern for young people, since they rely on training and experience before or during the early part of their careers. Young people find themselves unfortunately placed because they cannot fall back on such ‘occupational downgrading,’ whereas more experienced workers can, if need be.
In essence, young people occupy the centre of sustainable development. It may appear that the growth of emerging economies will be able to keep down world unemployment levels, but this is not entirely correct either. Figures are expected to remain low due to the spill-over of the crisis in the Eurozone. Youth unemployment figures as a whole will further increase up to 2017, according to a UN report.
Occupational challenges
A UN report on youth unemployment specifically recommends job training and employment guarantees which are financed by governments, helping to offset the costs incurred by employers on taking on untrained young people. Amongst European countries such pro
grams can cost less than 0.5% of their budget. This is a small cost, as a report by the Economist points to long-term negative prospects for youth who struggle to find work:
“In Britain a young person who spends just three months out of work before the age of 23 will on average spend an additional 1.3 months in unemployment between the ages of 28 and 33 compared with someone without the spell of youth joblessness,” says the Economist magazine.
In light of the future risk to stable job growth, government-led initiatives are worthwhile, if economically costly in the short-term.
Another issue is that of ‘occupational downgrading’, observes Adam Lenton. Due to a lack of employment opportunities across the board, that guaranteeing youth employment may then leave older workers stranded in the job market. One option is to actively encourage apprenticeship-based work and make the most of the economic conditions; more experienced workers who perhaps are over-qualified for a role can use some of their time to supervise and support young workers, training them and imparting some of their experience.
In addition to simply making it financially viable for companies to take on young workers, they could be ‘paired’ with experienced workers to help develop useful skills further and propel them into the job market upon completion of an internship. This could be a strategy for developed and developing countries alike.
Collaborative learning
Youth and learning go together. In maturing, they need to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes. I see the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) as a significant initiative in this respect.
COL is an intergovernmental organisation established by the Commonwealth Heads of Government in 1988 to encourage the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. It works in close association with Commonwealth governments and local institutions and agencies, operating through a wide range of partnerships undertaken in a spirit of equality and participation. It seeks to create mutually beneficial linkages, especially of a South-South character, among Commonwealth countries.
As the COL website describes, some of its key international partners include the Commonwealth Secretariat, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, World Health Organization, and World Intellectual Property Organization. COL’s regional agency, the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, was established in 1994 to promote co-operation and collaboration in the use of electronic media resources for distance education.
It appears that the COL’s mission is to help governments and institutions expand the scope, scale and quality of learning by using new approaches and technologies. Through its own resources and its extensive networks, COL provides a wealth of services and collaborative opportunities for policy-makers, institutions and distance education practitioners to encourage the development of, and help to enhance, the use of ODL policies, systems and applications.
COL’s mission focuses on helping Commonwealth member states to use technology as a means of increasing the scope, scale, quality and impact of their education and training systems. The application of technology through ODL techniques has shown its power and value in many countries and for many purposes.
‘Learning for Development’ has been the theme of COL’s three-year plan, 2009-2012. It expresses a vision that reaches beyond formal education to embrace areas of learning that are vital for better health, greater prosperity and a safer environment. Understanding development as 
the process of increasing the freedoms that people can enjoy, COL pursues this vision operationally within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the campaign for Education for All, and Commonwealth values.
COL’s three-year plan, 2009-2012 groups COL’s work into two sectors of activity: education, and livelihoods and health. In perusing through the details, I found the education aspect, particularly interesting. There are four education program initiatives: Open Schooling, teacher education, higher education, and Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth.
Education for Commonwealth youth
COL is helping to increase access to quality education while increasing student achievement by providing teachers in developing countries with new technologies, tools and skills. COL’s Open Schooling initiatives include the following.
Advocacy: COL works with partners in government, NGOs and education institutions to promote Open Schooling.
Collaboration: COL led the establishment of the Commonwealth Open Schooling Association (COMOSA), a group of Open Schooling and distance education practitioners that is working to support the expansion and improvement of open schooling.
Development of open schools: COL has helped to develop policies and proposals for the establishment of open schools in Cameroon, the Caribbean, Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, and United Republic of Tanzania.
Capacity-building: COL works with partners to train educators, administrators and policy-makers in the development and operation of open schools. Workshops have focused on materials development, instructional design, multimedia content development, radio broadcasting, learner support, e-learning, management of open schools, strategic planning for open schools and quality assurance.
‘OERs for Open Schools’: Funded by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, COL is working with educators in six countries – Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zambia – to develop and share OERs for secondary education, the professional development of teachers in the effective use of technology in classrooms and creating learner support material for teachers.
Research: COL has commissioned research into the provision of secondary level open schooling in India and Namibia, and the use of mobile technologies in open schools.
Quality assurance: COL provides training in this area and has developed a Quality Assurance Toolkit for Open Schools.
Publications: COL publishes handbooks, guides and reports about open schooling costs and financing, learner support, administration and course development.
Learning materials: COL has assisted with the development of quality learning materials for open schools.
Our connection
Sri Lankan youth can immensely benefit from getting connected with the Commonwealth of Learning. I could not find sufficient evidence to see that happening. Now that Sri Lanka is playing a crucial role for the next two years in Commonwealth matters, collaborative learning for youth should be revitalised. It should lead to equipping our youth for future in building their competencies to utilise opportunities.
Then we will be doing justice to the uncommon wealth of the Commonwealth.
(Dr. Ajantha Dharmasiri works at the Postgraduate Institute of Management. He can be reached on [email protected] or www.ajanthadharmasiri.info.)
