Friday 9 May 2014

The Global Picture for Young people

I have been absorbed this week in completing the next “Young Surrey: Strategic Review 2014-15” which will be published on Thursday 15th May at County Hall.   We have nearly 100 guests coming to a networking event there for our existing  Member organisations and for some 16 prospective new member organisations.  The event is kindly hosted by the Chairman of the County Council – one of our Patrons - and is by invitation only, and we will be launching the Review at that event.

BUT I can give you a sneaky preview of some facts that came to notice whilst doing the research about the global world for which young people now need to be preparing:
·         In roughly the time taken to read this BLOG, 244 babies will have been born in China and 351 in India
·         The country with most English speakers will shortly  be……China….the USA population will of course mostly be speaking Spanish by 2020
·         Young people now will have had 10-14 jobs by the time they’re 36 years old
·         3 D printers will be manufacturing most spare parts for machines and body parts by 2020 – a new cottage industry
·         1in 4 employees have ben employed for less than one year
·         The top 10 most sought after jobs now did not exist in 2004
·         New technological information doubles every 2 years
·         Every minute 204 million e-mail messages are sent
·         Every minute Google has  4 million search enquiries

I could go on..but it is an amazing world that young people are now growing up into.

The Strategic Review makes much of the changes in values and experience between generations – from Baby Boomers (like me) to Generations X,Y and now Zero for today’s teenagers. It also contains some strategic points about the implications of Government policy, and data on young people in Surrey - not the least of which is 23,000 children in Surrey living in poverty, and the 12,000 in receipt of free school meals.

The other exciting event next week is the announcement on Monday about Surrey Youth Focus’s new CEO who takes over from me at the end of August. I met with her for the first time on Thursday – she will be brilliant for Surrey Youth Focus and I am absolutely delighted. 
The weekend is my first 12 mile trial walk with a fully loaded rucksack in preparation for the Camino in September, and getting fizz /pouring drinks/hosting for  a fund raising event on Saturday evening – I should sleep well!
            Mike 

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