Youth Empowerment in the Digital Age: Skills Development for Modern Workplaces

According to the UN, digital technologies have advanced more rapidly than any innovation in history, reaching 50% of the developing world’s population in only two decades. When harnessed correctly, by increasing connectivity and providing access to vital services, it can be a powerful equalising force. This year, International Youth Day celebrates the power of youth and digital innovation and how young minds are harnessing technology to create sustainable solutions for our world's most pressing challenges.?

However, as digital opportunities grow, so does the digital divide. Digital poverty and digital exclusion refer to those lacking not just the access to devices and the internet, but also the right skills and access to information. As the world becomes increasingly digital, this can lead to the exclusion of individuals from participating fully in the economy, accessing crucial services, and engaging in social and political activities.? The wider the existing inequalities become, the greater the need to enhance digital inclusion.?

At The King's Trust International , our three main strands of programme delivery for young people - Education, Employability and Enterprise, are perfectly situated to help address these challenges. These programmes increase impact for young people by providing access not just to digital platforms, but also to critical digital skills and information.??

In collaboration with our global network of partners, we have built our understanding of how youth in developing countries are affected by the rapid increase in technology. Our delivery focuses on the need to prepare young people for the changing future of work, ensuring they develop digital skills and that they are aware of new opportunities that will come their way as well as the risks and challenges that these may bring.???

Digital progress is not a single linear path. Regions and countries have developed based on their unique social and economic conditions, as well as the infrastructure available to them. Many countries within Africa, for example, bypassed the era of personal computers and moved directly into mobile technologies, rapidly advancing the use of mobile technologies.??

To address this, we maintain a grassroots?approach that involves engaging with communities to understand their needs, building trust, and ensuring that tech usage is culturally and socially appropriate. This means involving local communities in the design and implementation of digital solutions and providing them with the right training and support to use and maintain these technologies.??

One example of this is the Get Ready employability programme in Lagos state in Nigeria. Our design process indicated that WhatsApp is the most widely accessed platform used by our target audience in Nigeria. We therefore designed a series of content targeting improved employability skills, delivered using a simple youth-centred WhatsApp chatbot. The content is designed to complement a series of face-to-face training sessions, but as the majority of the learning is delivered via WhatsApp, young people have the flexibility to control their own pathways to success.??

This ensures an inclusive way of providing access to skills for young people as they are able to work through the series of critical skills training in their own time, within a 2-3 week window. But progress is tracked, and completion is encouraged with the delivery of certificates for the completion of each module, as well as a final certificate for the completion of the entire programme and an invitation to attend an in-person graduation event.??

We are continuing to grow the impact of this model by inviting youth who have completed the digital training to attend an in-person job fair event where they can put the skills that they have learned to practice in real-life job interviews with prospective employers.?

Through programmes like these, not only are young people being introduced to digital skills, they are also able to effectively use digital information and resources to their advantage in order to develop their employability skills. Modules introduce important topics such as managing your digital identity and using online search tools to look for employment. As we develop our programming, we are also looking at further content to support online safety and to help young people to understand their rights online.?

Designing innovative programming is needed to address the challenges of the modern world and ensure our youth are prepared. The integration of technology in the programme design means that not only is it more accessible, but that young people are developing the skills most relevant to their futures, providing them with the pathways for success in the digital world.??

?