05 Jul Youth skills: The key to a happy future
Knowing what you are good at is fundamental to getting the most out of life. This allows you to enjoy your career and spend your free time doing something you love.
But discovering your passion isn’t always that easy. Once you do though, you will be fired up and ready to strive, succeed and live your best life.
For teenagers, developing the skills that set them up for a career and life that’s fulfilling is so important, but it can be difficult. Finding the right support at the right age will make a huge difference in enjoying a rewarding job.
“Youth is, after all, just a moment, but it is the moment, the spark, that you always carry in your heart.”
Raisa M. Gorbachev
Discover your potential
Everybody is different, and while school subjects cover wide spectrum, there are still many young people who struggle to find their niche in the classroom. Feeling as though you are not as good as other people and cannot do something as well can be seriously demoralising. Feeling like this over several years can be devastating to self-esteem.
But if a teenager is supported in finding out what they are good at, and enjoy, from an earlier age, they can develop their skills and flourish. Life is a rich, diverse experience and everyone has a place in it to enjoy – it is just a matter of finding the place that you want to be in.
Supporting youth skills
The UN World Youth Skills Day on 15 July highlights the need to support young people in developing the skills needed to support them in finding a job that they enjoy and that lets them live well. This is not always easy for everyone, and the day emphasises the need for employers and mentors to support young people on this journey.
The need to help those teenagers struggling to develop skills is recognised by the UN, which works to support programmes to develop youth potential across the world.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
Alice Walker
Discover your inner spark
On a local level, across the UK, organisations and companies make it their mission to support young people to succeed by helping them to build the right skills.
Ignition! exists to find that spark in teenagers and to help them light it. If there is one thing in your life that you feel good about, you enjoy and know that you are good at it makes it so much easier to accept and rise above challenging situations.
If you are, or know, a teenager who is struggling to find their passion in life and to develop the skills to create a fulfilling life for themselves Ignition can help.
“There is no passion to be found in playing small — in settling for a life that is less than you are capable of living.”
Nelson Mandela
Become an Ignition! coach
Or do you have a passion to help young people reach their potential? Becoming an Ignition! coach is a rewarding way to help support young people as they search for the fuel that lights their sparks and sets them off on a path towards a rewarding future. As an Ignition! coach you will work with young people to discover what brings them alive, what they love – and support them into using this to develop the skills to create a positive future.
Ignition! Practitioner Training is being held this September from Monday 26t to Wednesday 28, in Stoke-on-Trent, and is the perfect chance to learn how to be a coach and mentor to young people needing a new direction in life.
“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Dates for the diary this July
National days
Thank You Day, 5 July 2022
Held a little earlier this year to tie in with the Platinum Jubilee, Thank You Day is a chance to show your gratitude to all those people who have helped you. It can be too easy to take support and help for granted so take a moment to think who has made a difference and say thanks. Gratitude is good for helping to reduce stress and improve your mood so what are you waiting for? It makes you feel good, it makes someone else feel good – saying thank you is a win-win situation.
World Youth Skills Day, 15 July
We know the importance of building a set of skills to help you follow a rewarding career, but have you or someone you know got lost on that journey? Stop, think and take stock about what you are doing, or planning to do as a career and decide if that is working for you. If you want to develop different skills, or to start from scratch, work out what it is that you want to do. If you can’t figure it out, ask for help. It is never too late to improve your life.
World Youth Skills Day, 15 July
Trust and friendship can build a better world – that is your world, your community and the world at large. Friendship is so powerful it is recognised by the UN on this day as the simplest form of the shared spirit of human solidarity. Through the values that create friendships, the UN believes we can create a better world. Celebrate the friendships you have, be grateful for them and nurture new ones. Hopefully, countries across the world can also find a common union to create a better world.
Choose the life you want to lead
Building the skills to support you in a career that you enjoy will set the foundation in place for a happy, prosperous life.
If you do something that you love, you will enjoy every day of your job – and your life. Don’t let the life that you were meant to lead pass you by, discover what gets you fired up and excited? What would you really love to do with your life? Take action now to live your dreams.
My books ‘The Spark to Your Success – Helping Teens Build Resilience’ and ‘The Spark to Your Success – Mindset Magic for Teens‘ help guide teenagers in discovering what that passion is while Ignition! coaches offer 1-2-1 or group coaching to help support youngsters. If you are struggling to find your passion in life – or if you have successfully found yours – listen and share experiences via our social channels:
Start today to live the tomorrow that you deserve by discovering your true passion.
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