World Youth Skills Day is celebrated on July 15 each year to “celebrate the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship“. In the Nigerian context, unemployment – and particularly youth unemployment – is a growing crisis. According to Trading Economics, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is 33.3%, while the youth unemployment rate is as high as 53.4%. With a labour force of over 80 million people, there are simply not enough jobs to go around.
However, as the UN notes, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated several transitions in the world of work. Work from home, freelance work, and remote work have now become more common. This provides new and exciting opportunities for young people to tap into, regardless of their location. Against this context, the theme for World Youth Skills Day 2022 is apt: “Transforming youth skills for the future”.
In line with the theme for this year, Frontline Youth Creativity Initiative is eager to equip young people with adequate skills for the post-pandemic world. In December last year, we organised a creative and life skills training for youth, teaching them important self-branding, marketing, vocational, vocal, and digital skills. During 16 days of activism against gender-based violence last year, we also gave young people an opportunity to demonstrate their creative skills while speaking on the important issue of SGBV.
Today, in commemoration of World Youth Skills Day 2022, we are giving young people an opportunity to showcase their creative writing skills. Ahead of the forthcoming 2023 general elections, and in line with our mission to empower young creatives to be positive change agents, we are calling on youth to write creative pieces on the theme: Promoting Youth Political Participation in Nigeria.
Writing is an important skill that can help youth stand out in areas that are in demand in our modern world. These areas include creative writing, copywriting, content writing, content editing, and content creation. Following the competition, we will profile the top five entrants on our website, and feature all shortlisted entries in an e-magazine. Through this, we hope to showcase these young talents, while also harnessing their creativity into positive messaging and stimulating discourse around youth political participation in Nigeria.
To find out more about the competition and how to enter, click here.
