Ambassador Rooseboom at the ‘RewirED’ education summit
Sunday 12 till Tuesday 14 December, the RewirED Summit took place in Dubai as part of the Expo 2020. This global education summit focused on three main themes: 1. Youth, skills and the Future of Work; 2. Innovation in education; and 3. Education financing.
People from around the world came together to discuss the current education crisis, which has been worsened as the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities. 300 million children additionally are not able to attend education. Also discussed is the way forward to ensure that education will be qualitative, inclusive, sustainable and helps prepare young people for the job market.
Ambassador-at-Large for Youth, Education and Work, Tijmen Rooseboom travelled to Dubai to represent the Netherlands. Read how he experienced the first in-person summit in two years!
Cooperation between youth, public and private sector
Together with the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE), the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs organised a session under the first pillar Youth, Skills and the Future of Work called ‘(Future) Economies start with Youth’! The session brought together two Kenyan CFYE Youth Champs, Fridah Okomo and Mohamed Elmas, a young CFYE implementing partner from Kenya, Brencil Kaimba and Ambassador Rooseboom.
The session elaborated on the Future of Work in Africa, specifically focusing on Kenya. The session focused on what is required now and in the future in order to equip young people with the right skills and knowledge to build stable futures for themselves, their communities and countries. Although the world is changing at a rapid speed because of technological innovations, Fridah strikingly stated, ‘we are equipping tomorrow’s youth with yesterday’s knowledge and skills’.
Mohamed stated that ‘Kenyan youth aspire not only to acquire jobs but decent jobs. Decent to me means the jobs align with aspirations, provide both job and financial security, social protection, are inclusive and provide personal and career development.’ Cooperation between stakeholders is key, if we want to ensure that the way forward is inclusive, accessible and sustainable.
Youth researchers on their global survey
During the high-level panel: Youth, Skills & the Future of Work, Ambassador Rooseboom and the Minister of Education of Bangladesh, H.E. Dr. Dipu Moni, reflected with three Restless Development youth researchers on the learnings and recommendations coming out of their global youth survey that was done for the RewirED summit.
This global survey -‘the largest global youth survey since the Covid-19 pandemic’-builds upon the It’s Our Future report, from which the YAH principles were distilled, which was prepared for Youth at Heart virtual forum that the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs organised a year ago. Inés Yábar from Restless Development underlined in her discussion with Ambassador Rooseboom how important it is that youth participation is meaningful and that youth are being considered as equal partners.
Youth at the forefront of a sustainable planet
Ambassador Rooseboom emphasised the importance of TVET and the incorporation of agri-skills in national curricula, during the session Passion and profit – How can agripreneurship be rewarding for youth and sustainable for the planet? organised by Generation Unlimited. He stressed the importance of listening to what the young farmers’ needs and desires are, to make the current agricultural system more attractive to young people. Again in this session, the importance of cooperation between youth, public and private sector was evident.