I read an article called The golden year: Solutions for Africa’s youth unemployment. This article explains how competitive it is for children entering the workforce to get a job. Africa has the largest youth population in the world, so each year ten to twenty million sub-Saharan children enter the labor market. Employers are now demanding skills critical to the 21st century work place, hurting the youth population who don't know these skills.

  My article talked about children coming out of school looking for work that they cannot take part in because they do not know the skills they need. Young people who are unable to find work the first year they get out of school are often affected for the rest of their lives. This leads them to earn twenty one percent less over the course of their lifetime compared to young children who get jobs right away. This article states that, "The first year of workplace exposure is crucial in charting career success. Extended periods of unemployment - especially at the beginning of one’s working life - carry a serious long term penalty."

  The skills employers are looking for are soft skills such as costumer service, problem solving, and detail orientation. Sub-Saharan children lack these skills because their school only focus on technical skills, and rely on rote learning. The children cannot learn these skills at home either because these are not skills that parents previously needed when they started work. There is such a demand for these skills because hospitality and retail are two of the fastest growing sectors in Africa. So how does any Sub-Saharan child enter the workforce then, and how do companies stay open?

    All around Africa, organizations are starting to form to help teach these soft skills to the youth.  The International Youth Foundation developed a global curriculum to teach these skills. Other organizations such as Harambee in South Africa and Education of Employment (EEE) are delivering help to any child who needs it. The only problem with this way of help is there are not enough organizations for the amount of unemployed children. To fix this problem the development of internships or apprenticeships form around Africa. This usually means that the youth finds somebody who understands these skills and looks up to them as their "expert".   This provides them with real experience in the workforce and many more big opportunities for both the youth and the apprenticeships.

    Due to all of this help, National Youth Programs already have exists in African countries including Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana. Ghana alone already has over two hundred thousand children successfully in the workforce.

    Youth unemployment is a very hard situation to solve. I think apprenticeships are the best way to go because they guarantee the youth is learning how to do the things they will need to succeed, while in the real work environment. Investing in these programmes could be a key to preparing a rapidly growing youth population for the 21st century workplace.