Do You Dare To Lead?

To many the word "leadership" and the whole idea of taking the lead on things may seem like a daunting prospect.

To young people especially, it may be something that you would not consider doing until later in your career, if at all.

Statistics show that young people lack trust in leaders among their local communities and indeed nationally with 67% believing that government policy is biased against their age group.

Unfortunately, lack of engagement between young people and their leaders means that positive young voices are not heard.  This means that they are underrepresented accross media platforms and this only perpetuates negative stereotyping of young people.

However there are leadership courses specifically geared towards young people that seek to try and build confidence and nurture our "leaders of the future."

Common Purpose offer 3-4 day courses for university students as they are just starting out in their career.  As part of the course they get to visit a wide range of organisations and quiz leaders from all walks of life.

Striding Out! also seek to link young graduates with 6 months work experience in their chosen field as well as offering professional leadership and management training.

YH World talked to Neelam Shah who enrolled on a scheme offered by Changemakers who encourage young people to "lead in business, public life and society at large."

Neelam heard about the scheme throught the voluntary organisation V Inspired and decided to specilise in a media course that enabled her to utilise and improve on her writing and journalistic skills.

"As part of the scheme we got to do a mini radio talk show for Bristol Community Radio" she says.

"My confidence has improved, my team building skills have been strenghthened and in terms of career prospects it definitiely gave me 100% assurance that writing and media communitcations is a field I would like to get into."

Meeting people and contacts also helped her and gave her more career opportunities.

If you would like to work with children then why not try volunteering with CIty Year London? Volunteers get placed in schools and help out with 1-1 mentoring and running after school activities. You will also recieve leadership training which will help you find the best jobs afterwards. For first hand account of what this is like click here

http://yhworld.wordpress.com/

No-one likes to feel powerless, whether within the organisation they work or generally.  However sometimes it might be up to you to take the initiative and instigate change.