YOUTH AND TRANSITIONS PANEL DISCUSSION

On 15 July, World Youth Skills Day, the RYVU team joined the launch of the Youth and Transitions Hub of the Open University’s Centre for the Study of Global Development. The Hub hosted the panel “Post-pandemic recovery: How can marginalised youth be supported in Technical and Vocational Education and Training and the labour market?“.

The insightful discussion focused on the lessons learnt during the Covid-19 crisis and the multiple ways in which Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and labour market systems can ensure equitable outcomes for the most marginalised.

In this online event, Professor Matt Baillie Smith has drawn upon initial findings from the RYVU project to explore the roles of voluntary labour in building skills and employability for refugee youth in Uganda. He discussed how there is a risk that volunteering is seen as a panacea for youth development in the global South, ignoring the inequalities it can (re)produce and limited evidence on its impacts.

In the same event, Professor Simon McGrath problematised the notion of linearity in youth transitions, questioning the ‘one-size-fits-all’ model of young people’s complex lives, and certainty about and externally-defined destinations. Finally, Alice Mukashyaka shared her lived experience in research and practice to emphasise the role of TVET in empowering young females in Rwanda.