Importance of Education to Youths
The period between childhood and adulthood describes the young age. Youth are a generation of energetic, vibrant, innovative, and most productive people in society. Education, on the other hand, is the art of learning that is achieved either formally or informally. Formal education is achieved by attending school whereas informal education is achieved through seeing and copying what the society does. Both types of education are important since some skills can only be achieved in a particular form as opposed to the other. For example, morals are best taught in an informal set up by the elderly as opposed to the classroom. Education is a bridge that distinguishes the literate from the illiterate as well as the rich from the poor. It is often seen as a shortcut to creating wealth since it is easier for learned people to acquire jobs as opposed to the unlearned. So as to increase their productivity and expand their innovative minds, youths should be encouraged to get educated both formally and informally. The paper will seek to explore the importance of education to youths.
According to Kirschner and Stoyanov (2018), the future of employment is unpredictable and very insecure. Technology is ever changing and hence with time the acquired skills and knowledge are no longer useful. There is need therefore, to educate the youth in such a flexible manner as to enable them cope with the dynamic technological environment and to prepare them for upcoming professions. According to their study, most jobs that are in existence today were not there five years ago. Moreover, robots and machines have replaced human labor to a great extent that most people end up losing their jobs. The education system should incorporate necessary changes and ensure schools are well equipped with relevant material so as to increase their competence. Knowledge in IT is vital since with time all manual labor is being replaced by ICT. It is only wise therefore, to educate the youth and equip them with skills that are future-proof.
Dwivedi (2016) compares the rate of unemployment between learned and unlearned youth. The study indicates that literate youth find jobs more easily as opposed to illiterate youth. The researcher also found that most of the employed youths took up jobs that were below their qualifications and hence most skills were being drowned. There is big gap between education and employment that the society needs to bridge. In this quest, the question of why the youth are scared of venturing into entrepreneurial activities arises. Some of those reasons include financial barriers as well as inadequate entrepreneurial skills. The latter is what the study focuses on. The Indian government sought to focus more on preparing youths to engage in enterprise creation rather than creating employees for organizations already in existence. Schools should focus more on entrepreneurship education and training.
Education equips youths with problem solving and decision making skills. Literate youth are better decision makers compared to illiterate youth. The level of discipline as well as antisocial behavior differs among the learned and unlearned youth. Hunter ( 2019) seeks to investigate the extent to which problem solving courses are taught in schools especially colleges. Universities and colleges should teach complex problem solving skills to their learners so as to improve their strategic thinking. At the workplace, people of different cultures, behavior and character are bound to interact. Issues therefore arise and without good problem solving and decision making skills, violence can easily take place. It is therefore necessary to train and educate the youth on possible decision making skills so as to avoid unnecessary commotion at the work place.
In conclusion, the study finds that it is vital to educate the youth since literate youth are more productive as compared to illiterate youth. Educating the youth enables them to get prepared to face the uncertain employment future. It also equips them with knowledge and skills to fit in the job world. Finally, education equips youth with useful decision making and problem solving skills.
References
Dwivedi, A. K. (2016). Educating Youth to Launch and Sustain Business Start-ups. Available at SSRN 2858755.
Hunter, C. R. (2019). THE NEED FOR AND THE TRAINING OF COMPLEX PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS. European Journal of Human Resource Management Studies.