YOUTHS SHOULD NOT SIT AND WAIT FOR JOBS

We live at a time when youths in the world face many challenges, and among all the challenges, it is unemployment that remains one of the most acute problems affecting them, more so in Kenya. It is not only youths that are affected by this but also the development of the nation is largely affected because the youth form the majority of the population in the nation and should create the largest taskforce. It has even reached a point where unlike before, not even graduates are assured of getting employment opportunities once they get out of school. This not only affects the future and stability of youth but also their self esteem and poses a serious danger and an economic burden to the nation. With the formal economy being unable to create enough employment opportunities to absorb the constant supply of labor-seeking youth to which we are part of, what then can we do as the youths of this nation? It is quite inevitable that employment opportunities are few, and what matters is what we do or what we are doing to deal with that. I would urge my fellow youths therefore that they consider working as volunteers first from the moment they finish school instead of just sitting at home doing nothing as this may increase their chances of getting an employment. Remember, nothing comes on a silver platter, and employment opportunities will not come to us while we are seated in our rooms or in our parents’ living rooms idling and playing all sorts of computer games but through the little things we may involve ourselves in doing. Consider volunteering in a company immediately after school, and when they will be recruiting new staff you may simply be considered for that job since you are already working with them. Is that not an employment opportunity that we must all take as youths? Through frequently volunteering and participating in community service we help build ourselves, it creates great opportunities for employment and, it just has many benefits. For instance, as a vibrant youth volunteering in a company or different places, you are able to create contacts and make rich networks with many people including potential employees. These people study you and would not hesitate to recommend you for employment whenever an opportunity arises. Also, we get the desired job experience by volunteering for a given job. Youths have always complained that they always become reluctant to apply for certain jobs in most cases because they are put off by the requirement for a given number of years of experience in that field, but have you ever volunteered for that job at some point to gain experience? What if we could also begin to think differently to create employment opportunities for ourselves as youths? It is during this stage in our youth that we are most agile and most productive in our lives, and when we spend most of that time seeking for employment and working for others then we only end up giving the best part of our lives; our entire productivity to others and somewhere else rather than do something useful for ourselves. It is the youth who have the solutions to their own problems and are masters of their own destinies; we therefore must make the right choices. We need to use our own productivity for our own good and it is first by realizing that when cases of unemployment among the youth would be very minimal and unheard of among the youth of this nation. The choices and decisions we make in the youthful years are very critical in our lives, and as such, we must aspire to always make the rightful decisions that will benefit us. Let us all decide to invest in our worthiness, let’s build our nation rather than waste our productivity in things like drug abuse and other poor choices. The responsibilities to change our status as youth, to live better lives, and to improve the way we live today all lies within us. We must all change our ways of thinking, we need to be ourselves and work for ourselves, and this nation also needs to depend on u as its backbone when it comes to developing ideas and solutions to our problems. It is us that will ensure our economic development is enhanced. We must realize that we hold the key to the solutions to our challenges, and that what we do as the youth will count so much. Let’s all not sit and wait for employment opportunities to come to us but instead, go for them. And as Francis of Assisi once said, “let’s just start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly we will be doing the impossible”. Engaging ourselves in acts of volunteerism and participation in community service and also, ideas for job creation for ourselves may be the solutions to our challenges. We must make ourselves better citizens of this nation.