By Youth Ambassador Laurence
As a young person who has been brought up in a rural area (Skipton, North Yorkshire), I feel very privileged to have been brought up in an environment that allows me to gain inspiration just on my doorstep.
Unfortunately, this stops at environment. As society has played very much to my disadvantage, with regional inequalities rife (lack of opportunity and support), I have had to be very resilient and self-motivated to be able to seek out opportunities and direction in my life. Although where I live will always be a home to me, I have always been made to feel like my future just isn’t here. I moved away from my parents three times, moved three times back and with numerous attempts to see a better future for myself, there still seems to be barriers wherever I go.
I initially dealt with this by participating and engaging with as many charities as possible, most notably UK Youth, who I give a great deal of gratitude and thanks to. Thanks to these charities, I have been finally able to just be myself and although it is still a very personal challenge for me at times, I feel I now have the friendships, contacts and the opportunity to be able to flourish. But, this was certainly not thanks to the education system.
Education is the key into the lock of employment, yet everywhere in the UK, there is almost a blindness of what the system expects from young people. Grades seem to be the ‘all and end all’ and there doesn’t seem to be any emphasis on life experiences, nor what is actually defined as a ‘gifted ability’. When describing students in this context, you simply cannot define this statement under a ‘one size fits all’ system, i.e. grades. This image sums up how I feel about the present UK Education System perfectly:
I’m currently at a stage in my life where I’m trying to evaluate and map out where I see my future, but things still seem a continuous blur. I do have a rough idea of where I see my life going, but I still cannot quite contemplate what steps I need to take in order to get there, as society just does not make it easy. I hope that working with Youth Employment UK, in conjunction with participating in further international youth exchanges, will give me the clear career/life path I’m so longing for (that society just hasn’t given me) that will enable me to be not only happy (as I felt on a recent Erasmus+ exchange) but will also enable me to contribute to society on all levels (as all of us aspire to do).
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