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Analyzing young people's challenges applying Problem Tree Technique

In the framework of "INN@SE- Innovative Social Entrepreneurship with youth engagement" project

Analyzing young people's challenges applying Problem Tree Technique

As part of Desert Bloom effort to finalize the design of a digital educational game "Young Entrepreneurs, Play it Right" under “INN@SE- Innovative Social Entrepreneurship with youth engagement”. The president of Desert Bloom, Mamoun Khreisat, facilitated a workshop to identify the top challenge that is currently facing young people to be used as a practical example for the educational game. The hybrid workshop style (virtually via zoom and physically/ face-to-face) was chosen to enable better engagement. Eight experts and ten young people contributed to the discussion. The workshop was under the URI MENA Cultural Café.

The participants agreed that the most common challenges that currently facing young people are:

  1. Lack of employment opportunity (number one challenge)
  2. Ineffective educational system (costly, does not focus on social, emotional and practical skills, Mismatch between education and the labour market …etc).
  3. Horizontal inequalities (inequalities between similar groups with different identities, e.g. social class, origin, religion, gender- women and men).
  4. Lack of freedom of choice (Young people are controlled by their families, peer pressure and prevailed norms and customs)
  5. Social Media (Time wasting, peer pressure, cyberbullying, low self-esteem and mental ill-health).
  6. Body image (Young people tend to compare themselves to others, particularly with those they see in the media)

To analyze and explore solutions to number one challenge “Lack of employment opportunities”, the participants applied the Problem Tree Analysis technique.

  • We identified the direct causes of lack of employment opportunities
  • We identified the (Primary Root) of lack of employment opportunities.
  • We discussed the direct effects of this challenge on young people.
  • We discussed the impact (indirect effects) of this challenge on society.

To analyze and explore solutions to number one challenge “Lack of employment opportunities”, the participants applied Problem Tree Analysis technique.

Suggested solutions include:

  1. Promote entrepreneurial mindset.
  2. Skills training- provide adequate cognitive, non-cognitive and technical skills.
  3. Direct the young people to future jobs like IT and digital transformation jobs (Cyber security expert, Software developer, Big Data analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics engineer, etc)
  4. Promote continuous self-learning (consistently build new knowledge and skills)
  5. Raise the awareness of online jobs.
  6. Improve the educational system by integrating cognitive, non-cognitive and technical skills in school education
  7. Promote volunteering and Internships
  8. Highlight the importance of building social networks
  9. Improve the informal sector conditions.