Youth work as a profession Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Youth work as a profession - Essay Example According to MacDonald (2011, p. 427), a large section of the youths are not engaged in gainful employment or in mainstream income-generating activities. This situation has largely been attributed to lack or inappropriate youth policies in many countries, as well as poor implementation of youth policies. It is against this background that it is critical to have a closer look at the existing and past youth policies. More importantly, it is crucial to explore topics that relate to youth and policy and ultimately come up with sound and practical solutions to the challenges bedeviling youths of particular countries and the world at large (Chambers and Lake, 2002, p. 5). In order to create a better understanding of the youth and policy, this paper will discuss the topic of youth employment. Particularly, it will explore employment of youth and the policies surrounding employment, as well as entrepreneurship as a form of youth employment. A number of studies have shown that one of the main challenges facing the world is youth unemployment. That is why reducing youth unemployment is one of the primary concerns of most governments in the world (Chigunta, 2002, p. 18). The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that about 90 million young people across the world are unemployed; this accounts for about 50 percent of 186 million unemployed people in the world (Oliver and Pitt, 2011). A recent study conducted by the ILO found out that youth are three and half times more likely to be unemployed than adults. The study also approximated that about 660 million young people will be looking for work or working in 2015, this is a 7.5 percent increase over the 2003 figure (ILO, 2005). Undoubtedly, these figures demonstrate the need for employment creation that focuses on youth. Chambers and Lake (2002, p. 7) note that participation of young people in the labor market is widely considered as a means of improving their social and economic transition