What is youth empowerment in civic education – A lot of things are beginning to take shape in the 21st century. Youth and young children are encouraged to take core responsibilities for their lives and actions.
However, Youth Empowerment can be defined as a process whereby people gain the helpful ability to make decisions and take responsible steps for their betterment and the transformation of other people’s lives.
Nowadays, young people are being taught how to be responsible even at the early stages of their lives, and they are being taught how to plan for the future unseen to live fulfilled lives. In other words, these processes involve teaching young people to be proactive about their lives. This is what is known as youth empowerment.
Why Is Youth Empowerment Important?
There are a lot of good thoughts behind this, and it cannot be overemphasized that youth empowerment helps in the growth and development of any economy in the world.
Moreover, it is straightforward to know whether it is experiencing growth or is finishing by first observing the well-being of the people.
A country with a good economy will provide its citizens with job employment opportunities, a quality standard of living and education, etc. Any country not prospering in all these areas mentioned is regarded as an underdeveloped or a developing country.
What Is Youth Empowerment In Civic Education?
There are a lot of benefits attached to youth empowerment in a nation or country, and they are listed below:
1. It Ensures Eradication of Poverty
One significant benefit of youth empowerment In a country is that it helps eradicate poverty amongst citizens, which is why it is imperative to be implemented to ensure poverty alleviation.
The youth needs to be empowered so that they can take valuable actions in their personal lives to be able to carry out their day-to-day responsibilities.
2. It Encourages Reduction In Crime Rate
Youth empowerment helps drastically reduce crime rates and activities as most youth will be engaged in valuable activities or employed in several different businesses.
3. Ensures Improvement In Standard of Living
Youth empowerment also creates room for possibilities and achievements. It encourages improving the standard of living of the youth in a country.
The youth are provided with good job opportunities, which helps them to provide for their basic needs.
4. Creation of Job Employment Opportunities
Empowering the youth involves creating job employment opportunities available for the people.
A good economy usually has a high ratio of employed citizens, which is one unique feature of youth empowerment.
5. Encourages Good Governance
Youth Empowerment encourages good governance since it helps to reduce criminal activities, enhance the standard of living and education and create chances for job employment for people.
All the attributes mentioned above encourage good governance that will be active and responsible in its dealings with the people.
Problems Facing Youth Empowerment
Below are some common factors that can prevent youth empowerment in a country or nation, and if they are treated carefully, positivity is bound to take place:
1. Lack of Employment Opportunities
The availability of employment opportunities can help to boost youth empowerment. Still, in a case where youth are not provided with job employment, and it isn’t easy to secure a job for oneself, this can reduce youth empowerment.
The lack of employment opportunities is one of the biggest killers in any economy and needs to be handled immediately.
2. Lack of Support
When people don’t gain the support they need, they tend to lose focus and interest in anything positive. This can also be one primary reason people carry on criminal activities since they do not get the proper support they need to learn meaningful skill sets, attend school and graduate, and secure jobs.
Lack of support is also a threat to youth empowerment.
3. Poverty
Poverty needs to be alleviated to ensure youth empowerment and stability. If not, the reverse will be the case in the end. Poverty alone contributes to the highest portion of youth criminal activities and unruly behaviour.
A poor economy breeds crimes and creates room for bad happenings since most people will be interested in making money by all means hence, looking for illegal means. Unfortunately, this happens in third-tier countries still struggling with growing economies.
4. Bad Governance
A lousy government can indeed prevent youth empowerment in a country. The government is wrong and affects all aspects of the economy, including the people.
It brings about poverty, increases in crime rates, a decrease in the standard of living, corruption, and a reduction in education standards. Bad governance leads to the suffering of the people. Hence, it discourages plans for youth empowerment.
5. Lack of Good Education
The youth needs to be educated to discover what is good for them; they need to be engaged in politics and other knowledgeable areas or fields.
Education helps broaden one’s thinking faculty and creates chances for one to make good decisions and carry out good planning. A good education helps to ensure that one can solve challenging problems. Hence, a lack of good teaching can terminate youth empowerment programs and operations.
Conclusion
The benefits and importance of youth empowerment cannot be overemphasized. Every country needs to adopt the system to achieve its purpose for existence and create a harmonious living amongst its people.
As a youth, it is vital and valuable to be empowered as it makes unlimited room for possibilities, and we hope you enjoyed the question that says, what is youth empowerment in civic education?