By Caroline Boyani
We are fortunate to exist in an age of technological advancements and easy access to resources. There is freedom and empowerment to pursue our goals for cleaner and better tomorrow. With the numerous pieces of training and challenges to come up with innovative projects, our minds are boosted and our reasoning expanded. Tertiary institutions play a great role in impacting and channeling knowledge and funds to support projects. These projects might be cleaner ways to produce energy or climate conservation.
It does not take just skills learned but the personal values that one abides by. A positive attitude towards work, deciding not to litter the environment and not to endanger species such as sea creatures goes a long way to show that we are heading in the correct direction. It is often easier to ignore and arrogantly do environmental injustices rather than being bold and doing what is required of us, nature is not so forgiving.
The planting of mangrove trees in the coastal region to sustain rainfall, and the creation of cleaner energy, and electric tuk-tuks took the minds of youths who had innovative ideas and individuals who believed and invested in those ideas. Capital is a crucial aspect when it comes to innovation especially for a project to be approved for large-scale production. Projects such as Mombasa Yangu have gone a long way in engaging youths and teaching them the importance of keeping the environment clean.
The current climatic conditions threaten jobs run by the youth that are dependent on healthy environments such as food enterprises. The warmer the conditions at the coast the faster food products will go stale considering not every youth has access to cheaper and effective preservation methods and capital to preserve the foodstuff. There is a shortage of skilled youth to thrive in a green economy due to a lack of training.
The opportunities available have to be shared across those in tertiary institutions and those who are unable to access university education placing those not in tertiary institutions at a disadvantage of obtaining green skills. Another factor to be considered is technological literacy where not every youth can access digital skills and resources to maneuver the green space.
On the brighter side, green skills have improved by 12.3% according to a LinkedIn analysis for 2022-2023 conducted by the United Nations in collaboration with other agencies. There is a lot needed to improve the numbers and create green jobs for the youth. The government can increase the funds meant for technological advancements and training. By bringing in experts in green skills and ensuring every youth has an equal opportunity to green skills access and resources then we can witness a remarkable difference.
If we continue to do things the same way we cannot expect better results. The government in conjunction with non-governmental organisations should ensure sustainability is attained by making funds available to promote innovative projects while protecting the copyrights of the youth that come up with the projects. The youth are the strength of today and not future leaders since the future is here and it looks disappointing if changes are not made.
