SOS Children’s Villages has joined world leaders at the United Nations in New York to launch a new partnership that aims to get every young person into quality education, training or employment by 2030.
The initiative, Generation Unlimited, will tackle the global education and training crisis that is preventing millions of young people from reaching their potential and threatening global progress and stability.
Generation Unlimited forms part of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Youth 2030 Strategy, and will complement and build on existing programs to support adolescents and young people. The partnership platform will focus on three key areas: secondary-age education; skills for learning, employability and decent work; and empowerment.
SOS Children’s Villages International CEO Norbert Meder is serving on the Global Board of Generation Unlimited. At the inaugural meeting this week he stressed the importance of prioritising the needs of young people who have lost parental care.
Norbert Meder said: “The 80,000 children and youth in our direct care have lost their basic support structure – their families. Learning from their experience and fighting for their rights has shown us that without investment into the second decade of life, we compromise the impact of our efforts during early childhood. Only in successfully walking with them on the last mile of their journey - from cradle to career - will we achieve sustainability and impact that will replicate itself.
“This initiative is a great step towards accomplishing a goal that we have been pursuing for 70 years. We cannot achieve the change we want to see alone. Working together in this partnership we will deliver transformative and sustainable change for and with children and young people.”
More than 70 million young people worldwide are unemployed. Young people who have lost parental care often face greater disadvantages when entering the job market as they lack the networks, resources and guidance of their families. Many face social and economic exclusion as a result.
SOS Children’s Villages operates youth employment initiatives worldwide that offer young people vocational training, career guidance, work experience, mentorship opportunities and the skills and confidence they need to build fulfilling careers and independent lives.
You can find out more about our work tackling youth unemployment here.
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For media enquiries please contact Lucy Prioli at Lucy.Prioli@sosuk.org or on 01223 222 974.