World Youth Skills Day brings youths a time to check efforts they have made towards personal capacity development. As it’s seen in the world today, youths are one of the most under-represented subsets of the global population when it comes to decision making. This is not due to under-population of youths but a jaundiced, stigmatized perception of youths by the ruling class all around the world.

Although the terms “youth” and “young people” are conceived differently by people in different parts of the world, they most commonly refer to adolescents and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24. Other sources extend this age bracket to include people of ages 29 or 35 but one factor is common to all; youth is the period (transition stage) between childhood and adulthood.

Demographically, youths have a global population of 1.1 billion claims a whopping 18 percent of the entire world’s population; 60 percent of which live in Asia; 15 percent, in Africa; 10 percent, in Latin America and the Caribbean; and the remaining 15 percent, in developed countries and regions.

These facts echo the unparalleled significance of youth in our world today and reiterate their importance in planning for future generation.

Unfortunately, rather than being major stakeholders in devising global developmental programs, youths themselves are the subject of global challenges with many facing possibilities of early marriage, early childbearing, incomplete education and the threat of HIV and AIDS.

To understand the severity, these statistics from United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs would paint a better picture.

Approximately 238 million youths live in extreme poverty, that is, they live on less than $1 a day; 462 million youth survive on less than $2 a day.

About 255 million young people live in the 19 countries with the largest poverty gaps; 15 of these 19 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Experts estimate that, in the 49 countries classified as having a high proportion of undernourished people, 110 million youth live in hunger.

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About 133 million youth in the world are illiterate.

Youth comprise 41 percent of the world’s unemployed people.  These figures shouldn’t be what describe the supposed most vibrant age bracket of the world! What can be done to address this? The exact reason why World Youth Skills Day is necessary and we will from an individual perspective to chart a way forward.

Poverty is a state of penury and lack. The only antidote to it is earning through just means.

The perception of “go-to-school, get-a-job-after” has led many youths to believe skill acquisition is not for them which leaves the world with a teeming population of “clueless youths”.

It is high time youths acquired skills and take up vocations they are passionate about and lift them well beyond the poverty and marginalization indices.

Many are also of the opinion that formal education is only what makes someone literate. No! President Jacob Zuma is the world’s most illiterate president. He lacked formal education but made up for his deficiency by acquiring skill which included language and leadership skills.

In conclusion, it is better to try and fail than not to try at all. Do not be so afraid to fail that you fail to start.

Ogunjobi Muyiwa Felix from Port Harcourt