Topic 1 Introduction to Youth Entrepreneurship

‘Youth is the Future of every nation & inheritors of the earth tomorrow.’ (Juneja, n.d.)

This statement could not be truer. It is a fact that having a healthy and active youth population defines a county’s overall development and progress. There’s a global motion towards a ‘Technology Era’. Through technology progress has been enabled in all fields and societies. At the same time, Globalisation has brought countries together and created entire world market.

Progress and challenges are closely associated. Most of the countries in the world today are faced with a common challenge: Youth Unemployment! The current youth population is estimated to be 1.5 billion of which 620 million are employable and ninety percent of this population live in developing countries. The increase of the overall unemployment rate is alarming, but, amongst the unemployed, the unemployment of youth seems to be more alarming.

Governments are focused on looking at framework and strategies to creating new jobs and increasing employment rates. In some of the countries, ‘youth entrepreneurship is being recognised as a promising alternative and is being actively promoted by various agencies’. If promoted actively, ‘Youth entrepreneurship can help sustain growing economies; integrate youth into the workforce besides leading to overall development of society’.  Furthermore, it affects the social, cultural and economic progress of the society. Building an environment that promotes creatively and provides opportunities for entrepreneurship calls for multi pronged strategies implementation and involvement at all levels including Government, industry, political, social as well as educational sectors.

(Juneja, n.d.)