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A plethora of youth development programmes exist across South Africa that can be characterised as social crime prevention or building youth resilience. However, many of these programmes can be seen as one dimensional, focussing largely on skills development and preparing youth for the labour market. In addition, a large number of these programmes are short-term interventions, with the long-term impact not always measured. A number of scholars over the last two decades have emphasised the importance of sustainability and envisioning a continuum of development, particularly for youth who have become disengaged from social institutions. Consequently, there is an urgent need to examine the different approaches to youth development and their value, and more importantly, to provide a platform for youth voices to be heard on their perceptions of what they need to enhance their growth and development, particularly in the context of the growing number of youth who are not in employment, education or training (NEET). An approach that is gaining currency in South Africa with NEET youth is that of a holistic approach. The purpose of this chapter is to explore a holistic approach to personal transformation in the youth sector as implemented by the Chrysalis Academy (CA) over the past 18 years. Its approach embraces the development of the whole person and encourages education in its broadest sense, including the arts, technical and vocational training, emotional intelligence, psychosocial support and spiritual development.

Kenya leads East Africa in creative goods export and enjoys high internet penetration. Therefore, identifying pathways, missed opportunities for accelerating job creation and development in the sector and strategies for mitigating youth-related challenges are essential. This paper therefore aims to examine the effects of digital media and the cultural and creative industry (CCI) on youth employment and economic development.

The document review and analysis data came from 45 scientific and 23 grey literature articles. While the lack of primary data is a study limitation, secondary data were drawn from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Statistics and the 2016–2022 entertainment and media outlook analysis. Microsoft Excel 2021 for Windows was used to analyze quantitative data and generate results.

Since the CCI sector is characterized by limited financial opportunities, low youth participation in the labor force and weak policy frameworks, success in the industry requires key pathways. These include investment in digital-led innovations, developing innovative models, building partnerships with the private sector, strategic investment by government in the potential creative industry sub-sectors and identifying successful scaling-up models.

Information gathered through this study is crucial to counter the youth unemployment challenge and strategy identification, which could be used in skills and capabilities development in the potential creative economy. Future researchers must explore how to apply the proposed creative capacity theoretical lens to inform research in the sector.

This study aims to examine the impact of knowledge and skills acquisition from youth leadership programs on the extent of training transfer. Additionally, it explores the role of self-esteem as a potential intervening mechanism in linking the acquired knowledge and skills to the transfer of training.

Using a non-probability purposive sampling, data were gathered from participants of youth leadership programs in Brunei. The study hypotheses were validated using multiple linear regression analysis and Hayes PROCESS macro.

The findings revealed that knowledge and skills acquisition positively affect the extent of training transfer among youth leadership program participants. Moreover, self-esteem is found to be a crucial mediator in the relationship between knowledge and skills acquired from youth leadership programs and the extent of training transfer.

The study suggests that to optimize the transfer of training in the youth leadership programs, relevant stakeholders – training providers, and practitioners – must prioritize not only the knowledge and skills acquisition but also the cultivation of participants’ self-esteem. To achieve this, a primary focus should be placed on the criticality of designing such programs to address these factors. Policymakers, particularly in Brunei, can enhance the leadership pipeline among the youth population and expedite progress toward achieving the national vision by aligning leadership development initiatives with the broader national development agenda.

Collectively, this study enhances understanding of training transfer in youth leadership development, an often-overlooked area in the literature.

Purpose: This chapter explores the two major schemes applicable to skill development in India: Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).

Need for the Study: The primary objective of this research is to check the role of these schemes in enhancing the skills of socio-economically stressed community members for their livelihoods. The secondary aim is to analyse the outcomes of these schemes through a qualitative inquiry.

Methodology: A survey was conducted, and the data was collected from trainees of the skill development programmes. Based on the responses, a qualitative content analysis was performed, which showed that most trainees have the thirst and urge to enhance their life skills for a minimalistic livelihood.

Findings: The study concluded that though there are many schemes, only PMKVY is active. They focus on more than just youth communities. Instead, they consider individuals in different age categories.

Practical Implications: The Government of India (GOI) is progressing towards a healthy economy to compete with other countries. For this mission to be achieved, skill and labour development is paramount. Appropriate training must be provided and administrated through government schemes.

Studies have shown that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers remain to be one of the areas where there is considerable job growth (Lacey & Wright, 2009; National Science Board, 2010; Singh et al., 2002). However, in many rural regions, science teachers still find it challenging to motivate adolescents to develop an interest in these fields or pursue opportunities in STEM at their schools or in their communities. In exploring a distinctive way to motivate students from rural regions to develop and maintain a STEM mindset, the authors provided students opportunities to participate in programs within their communities to increase their interests in STEM. The authentic STEM learning experiences, “at no cost” for the high school students, helped them focus on cognitive and social abilities as they engaged in experiences developing identities as pre-STEM professionals. This paper reports on how the authors were able to develop research through the support of the professional development system at the university.

The authors explored the experiences of the high school students and parents as they engaged in the Science Olympiad events, community volunteering and mentoring projects over three years in the southeastern United States. A total of 50 high school students participated from the Science Olympiad team from ethnic backgrounds: Hispanic/Latino Americans (55%), African Americans (10%) and White Americans/Caucasians (35%) participated. The high school students and parents were asked to participate by completing required permissions and also completing pre- and post-surveys to help understand their reasons for participating in the activities. At the end of the semester, an interview was conducted with participants to better understand their experiences with working on the team and their STEM perspectives. Parents and guardians of the high school students were also asked to share their thoughts about their children participating in these activities through indirect conversations. The school partnership teacher, also Science Olympiad co-coach, invited high school students to participate in additional STEM activities throughout the school year through the university partnership.

The pre- and post-survey responses provided insight to researchers about the “lived experiences” of the students as they developed a STEM mindset. Analysis of data indicates students’ interests in STEM and working with youth increased as a result of the STEM opportunities. To help in increasing their interests, additional opportunities are needed for these youth to engage in STEM tasks and mentoring. The professional development system (PDS) creates the space for these opportunities to take place, leading to new knowledge for learning and “boundary-spanning roles” for school-university faculty to discover and experiment new ideas that “transcend institutional settings” (National Association for Professional Development Schools, 2021).

Additional research is needed in helping high school students develop a STEM mindset as they participate in volunteer STEM experiences. The survey tools should be revised to address the specific STEM activities that the students participate in during the year. In addition to feedback from the youth and parents using focus group interviews or other defined survey instruments.

The school-university partners continue to explore the successes and challenges of the collaborative effort. Disruptions in the collaborative effort such as school closures due to severe weather and the pandemic have resulted in cancellations of STEM opportunities for high school students. Despite challenges, this collaborative effort continues with an additional focus on STEM learning.

Suggested research may involve investigating parental involvement strategies that increase the likelihood of actual high school student attendance during out-of-school time activities, such as community STEM fairs, competitions and summer STEM camps. Use of focus group interviews provided students setting to talk freely.

Through a new initiative established by the PDS at the university, “PDS Master Teachers,” the school-university faculty were invited to participate and engage in purposeful, intentional professional learning and leading to enhance the quality of the experiences for teacher candidates (Professional Development System, Watson College of Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2022). This innovative program inspired the school-university faculty to reflect on practice and create new approaches to expand STEM learning in the school and community. Through this collaborative effort, the following National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) Nine Essentials were addressed: Essential 2: Clinical Preparation; Essential 3: Professional Learning and Leading; Essential 4: Reflection and Innovation; Essential 5: Research and Results; and Essential 8: Boundary-Spanning Roles (National Association for Professional Development Schools, 2021). The University’s PDS comprehensive approach to professional learning and its dedication to providing a space for all to engage in reflective practices for professional growth provided the required support for this project.

South Africa is in the last stage of the first demographic transition (FDT) – yet already depicts aspects of the second transition. The last stage of the FDT is characterized by lower levels of fertility closer to or at the replacement level of the average of 2.1 children per woman, and improvements in mortality displayed by declining infant and childhood mortality leading to increasing life expectancy at birth. The second demographic transition (SDT) is driven by lifestyle changes that are determinants of demographic patterns. Such lifestyle changes are declining marriage rates, increasing attention on human development, and thus changing family formation patterns. South Africa’s youth are at the centre of this transition. The population census of 2011 shows an age structure of South Africa that is characterized by a larger proportion of 20-35-year-olds. This resulted from a long period of declining fertility and to some extent improvements in mortality at all ages. This age structure, with adequate investments - is expected to yield a period of economic growth resulting from a reduced dependency ratio. However, improved health care, investments in human development, and higher employment opportunities are required to harness the benefit. This chapter aims to explore the national and provincial preparedness of South African youth to contribute to economic growth of the country. In particular, the chapter will focus on demographic factors such as sex ratio; youth mortality and morbidity; and youth fertility levels as these factors are highly correlated with human development.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which entrepreneurial resourcefulness and competencies theories and practice can be applied in small youth entrepreneurship in Ghana as well as develop an entrepreneurial resourcefulness model for youth entrepreneurs that incorporates their competencies.

A qualitative exploratory approach using semi-structured in-depth interviews amongst 32 youth entrepreneurs in Accra, Ghana was used.

Youth entrepreneurial resourcefulness embraces some relevant concepts of traditional entrepreneurial resourcefulness and competencies. It also emerged that there were other competencies including discipline, understanding business numbers and being empathic which are competencies associated with youth entrepreneurial resourcefulness.

This paper was limited to a small sample of youth entrepreneurs in Ghana; thus, the generalisation of findings should be done with care.

A “3Ps” model for entrepreneurial resourcefulness in youth micro-entrepreneurship is proposed, which encompasses the attributes of personal, people and political competencies. This paper is one of the few attempts to study and explain the type of competencies and resources embedded in youth entrepreneurial resourcefulness.

In Chapter 4, the author will discuss the youth drinking epidemic regionwide, in order to demonstrate why the impacts of alcohol products on youths are concerning. The author will present the major youth drinking trends within SEA, to further study how the rampant alcohol trade regionally has adversely affected local youths to a troublesome degree. The author will point out the causes of the youth drinking epidemic, which are susceptibility and toxic culture. Next, the author will evaluate the national and regional costs of youth drinking, discussing how such a lifestyle results in consequences in relation to delinquency. The author will recommend policies for alcohol control that the SEA governments should take into account when amending or forming their policies to contain the epidemic of youth drinking. The outputs of Chapter 4 will draw a close association between youth smoking, youth drinking, and youth sexual misconduct. Therefore, the author indicates that these youth delinquency problems should be addressed simultaneously in order to eradicate the issues of holistic youth misbehaviours in the long term.

The purpose of this study is to assess reasons behind experienced challenges by local government authorities (LGAs) in operating Women, Youth and People with Disabilities Fund (WYDF) in Tanzania. Specifically, it assesses the reasons behind failures to recover loan by LGAs and groups of Women, Youth and People with Disability (WYPWD).

The qualitative approach was recruited in this study involving Tunduru District Council as a case study. Data were collected through Interviews, Focus Group Discussion and Documentary Review. Interviews were administered to Community Development Officers (CDOs) while FGD to WYPWD groups. Reviewed documents include laws, regulations and publications on social development funds. Data were analyzed using content analysis approach and backed up by quotations during presentation.

Failures to recover loans from beneficiaries is attributed to weaknesses of both groups and LGAs. LGAs suffer from lack of capability to manage the fund, poor governance practices and misuse of public funds, and groups lack awareness of the fund's goals.

Due to experienced challenges, efforts by groups and LGAs to reclaim loan have been unsuccessful, which has prevented the fund from achieving its goals.

The central government should concentrate on ongoing LGAs capacity building so that they can successfully handle the fund, it is advised for improvement. Again, LGAs should establish an information system linked with groups to track their projects implementation. Once more, groups should be informed about the purpose of creating the fund and the advantages of the loan to them and to local economic development (LED). Furthermore, groups need entrepreneurial abilities to be able to participate in businesses that they can manage. Moreover, organizations should receive ongoing education so that they may repay the loan voluntarily.

Community awareness on the aims of the fund should be provided to impact LED.

Recommendations given can be applied by other developing countries struggling to uplift citizens economically through social development funds.

In Chapter 3, the author will problematise the youth smoking epidemic within SEA, in order to justify why the regional impacts of the tobacco trade on youths are worrisome. The author will present the major youth smoking trends in SEA, for the purpose of illustrating how the presence of tobacco products has adversely affected regional youths to a concerning degree. The author, next, will highlight the causes of the youth smoking epidemic, namely susceptibility and positive advertising. The author follows by emphasising the national and regional costs of youth smoking, by arguing how such a lifestyle results in negative consequences in relation to the delinquency itself. Lastly, the author will recommend policies for tobacco control that SEA governments should consider to contain the epidemic of youth smoking. It is noteworthy that all SEA governments have some degree of tobacco control policies in place. However, many lack the implementation of comprehensive national tobacco control strategic plans and tightened law enforcement endeavours to specifically target the problem of youth smoking. Therefore, the outputs of this chapter should contain scholarly values that are conducive to the betterment of policy-making.