How Entrepreneurship Can Help Reduce Underemployment And Unemployment?

Photo credit: Anna Taraze

Youth Unemployment Is Rampant

Young people worldwide are roughly twice as likely as older adults to be unemployed. From a report released in 2020 by the International Labor Organization, the global youth unemployment rate stands at 13.6%. This translates to 67.6 million young women and men without any source of income. To top it all up, it is estimated that 23% of young people currently employed in the world earn less than $1.25 a day.

Consequently, the World Bank estimates that in the next decade, one billion young people will try to enter the job market, but less than half of them will be able to find formal jobs. Should this prediction come true, very many young people are likely to experience a high rate of working poverty. Even further, there is a likelihood that they will suffer from economic inequality and possibly even social exclusion.

Such alarming predictions indicate that there is a need to help young people get into, and remain in, sustainable employment. Many have proposed entrepreneurship as a possible countermeasure. But do we have what it takes to create 500 million new income generating positions through entrepreneurial ventures, to fight unemployment and devise new ways to curb underemployment? What does achieving this take to begin with? Let’s have a look.

We believe that the problem of youth unemployment is one that can be remedied mostly through placing conscious efforts on nurturing entrepreneurial activities and intentions.

What Causes Youth Unemployment And Underemployment?

Besides the more recent economic turbulence that has been caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there are other underlying issues that can be attributed to the declining number and quality of jobs available, especially for the youth. These factors, despite being more pronounced in some geographical regions, seem to cut across many countries, each of different economic standards. Safe to say, these are global issues and, if resolved, perhaps the number of un- and underemployed youths can see a significant decline worldwide. The most pertinent of these issues include:

- Lack of Relevant Job Skills

The lack of relevant skills is an unemployment cause that affects young people across the globe. Despite a global literacy rate of 86.3% for people aged at least 15 years old, young people still lack enough skills to transition smoothly into the job market. This shows that the lack of skill is not a result of being uneducated. In fact, most young people lack job-related skills because education systems in most countries are still based on 20th century standards, instead of the more advanced, and more demanding standards of today’s job market.

Many businesses need skills young people never received, or have been taught how to learn themselves. The result is that young people experience difficulties transitioning from school to work, and businesses grapple with finding candidates qualified for their positions.

- Lack Of Entrepreneurship Skills

Stemming from the outdated school curricula is yet another issue of lack of entrepreneurial skills and training. Among most school-going youths, the focus is to finish school and land a well-paying job. Very few young people view their education as a means to start their own business ventures. Vocational and entrepreneurial training in school systems across the world is either under-executed, or completely nonexistent.

This overemphasis on traditional academics coupled with the inadequate effort to impart entrepreneurship skills and culture among youths leaves the future of entrepreneurship activities very bleak, and the possibility of more unemployed youths very rife.

- The Digital Divide

Besides being inadequately skilled for jobs, and lacking knowledge in entrepreneurial activities, young people in some countries are also facing technology-related challenges. As is the case, especially in some developing countries, access to the internet and digital tools is often limited.

Either the youths in such countries cannot afford the costs associated with digital media, or the countries do not have sufficient infrastructure to sustain the same. This digital divide highly impacts the opportunities that young people could possibly have for employment. They are also unable to access the wealth of knowledge that is offered by the internet. Lack of access to, and reduced familiarity with, digital media makes most young people unable to keep up with emerging technologies in the job market and this puts them at an obvious disadvantage.

What Can Be Done To Reduce Youth Unemployment In The World

It may prove difficult to completely eradicate youth unemployment, but reducing its levels is doable. First we have to make an attempt to understand some of the issues that lead to the increase in the number of unemployed and underemployed youths, and we have.

We believe that the problem of youth unemployment is one that can be remedied mostly through placing conscious efforts on nurturing entrepreneurial activities and intentions. We believe that if young people can be empowered to start their own business ventures, the over-reliance on existing jobs would reduce, more opportunities for innovative business would be generated and the society would benefit from an array of solutions brought about by entrepreneurial activities. But, “promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all” as proposed by the UN Sustainable Development Goal 8 requires targeted solutions.

Our targeted solution is to make entrepreneurship accessible for everyone by enabling entrepreneurs to access entrepreneurship education and training that is tailor-made for their specific entrepreneurial needs.

What Is Entrepreneurship Education And Training At Edventures?

To this point, you are cognisant that most young people lack enough job and entrepreneurship skills to land them meaningful employment. Edventures has noticed this too and is offering to improve the situation by providing personalized entrepreneurship education to entrepreneurs worldwide.

By signing up to Edventures, you get a chance to learn more about entrepreneurship, test your understanding of the related subjects, work on your business idea and find more information about the business niche you want to approach. You can also request to get a coach and Edventures will help you find and connect to organizations that may have entrepreneurship coaches, to help you out with your journey as an entrepreneur.

Even more fascinating is that the entrepreneurship education we offer has been personalized and simplified enough so that you learn as much as you can, with as little hustle as possible. All this is made possible by our artificial intelligence assistants Anna and Eddie. It is literally entrepreneurship learning made as easy as texting.

How Can I Help Reduce Youth Unemployment?

We all have a responsibility to fight youth unemployment as much as possible. A good first step would be to learn about, and to let others in on some of the issues about the challenges of employment among youths. Secondly, discussing issues without solutions could prove to be counterproductive. So, discuss with as many people as you can about the possibility that entrepreneurship could serve as a major solution to the youth unemployment problem. Encourage as many people as you can to get entrepreneurship education and grow their business ideas because we believe that no idea should be inhibited.

Join our journey and sign up to our waitlist! 📝