Why young people worldwide want and need ‘meaningful work’

We live in a world in which one in five young people are not in employment, education and training.

Data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) also tells us that it’s a world in which the lack of investment in creating education and work opportunities for young people could cost the global economy $83 trillion by 2030.

The flower of youth is strangled by the weeds of despair.

At the end of 2023, YMCA—along with Deloitte Australia and Service Now—launched a global research survey led by young people, for young people. The survey reached more than 10,000 young people aged 18-35 in more than 120 countries worldwide, with 45% of respondents from underrepresented groups.

The research suggests that 4 in 10 young people do not have the right skills, qualifications or experiences to enter work or start a business.

The mismatch between the skills needed by workplaces and the skills actually being developed is well known, particularly as the work landscape continues to change rapidly. The World Economic Forum itself estimates that almost half of those “core skills” are expected to change in the next five years.

A striking feature of our research was the consistency of its findings across the world. Respondents told us that the biggest gap in their armoury was digital skills. Parallel research by Dell Technologies found that only 44% of young people had only ever been taught “very basic” digital skills, while 12% had no training at all.

We also heard that three in 10 young people are limited by poor social and economic conditions in their countries, and the same proportion do not have access to the right support to help them into work or business.

The survey results reveal that young people’s work and well-being continue to be affected by four Cs: COVID-19, conflict, climate change, and the cost of living.

The research clearly shows that current programmes and approaches to the challenge of youth unemployment are fractured: they do not meet young people’s needs and limit their ability to reach their potential.

Perhaps most importantly, it suggests that young people aspire to do ‘meaningful work’. This is work with safeguards and enriching and empowering work experiences that bolster their skills and prospects while allowing them to contribute to a wider sense of purpose and impact on society.

So where do we go from here to meet the challenges of employment, under-employment and unemployment for young people? We start by defining, sharing and establishing what young people tell us about the work they want to do.

According to our research, meaningful work is ‘work that is fair and fulfilling, and which positively influences the growth and well-being of young people and their communities’. Respondents also told us what that work looks like in practice, and we extracted 12 standards of meaningful work to share with the ILO and other global partners.

The magic ingredients of decent work are that it must be healthy, rewarded, ethical, protective, inclusive, growth-promoting, co-created, balanced, productive, sustainable, purposeful and connected.

Young people tell us that authorities are failing them. We need a systemic, coordinated response from educational institutions, employers, businesses, governments, civil society organizations, and communities to help young people find, prepare for, and access meaningful work.

All have a part to play, starting with governments which can use these standards to align their efforts and allow young people a voice in policy decisions which influence their futures. Employers can use them in recruitment and worker trust, motivation, retention and training and development. Young people themselves can use the standards to help them navigate their careers. These 12 standards now need to be tested across the working landscape.

The working plight of millions of young people not only affects their well being, it hinders future economic growth.

Meaningful work isn’t only about fair wages and benefits – it encompasses a sense of purpose, growth opportunities and a healthy work-life balance. It’s about benefitting employees and employers alike.

There are approximately 1.1 billion reasons why this matters: that’s the amount of young people from the Global South alone who will be entering the workforce in the next decade.

The YMCA, one of the largest employers of young people worldwide with 90,000 staff and 920,000 volunteers, is taking note. Policy-makers around the world, it’s time to take note, too.