Your Voice. Your Opportunities. Your Future.

Young people are often discussed by adults rather than heard directly. Youth-Wire creates a space where students and young people can share their opinions, follow opportunities, discuss the issues affecting them and find information that can help them build their futures.

Being young comes with its own set of questions. What am I going to do after university? Where can I find an internship? How do I apply for a bursary? Where can I find work experience? How do I start a business? Why is student life so expensive? What happens when I graduate? How should young people respond to the challenges facing the country?

These are not side issues. They are questions about the future of Africa.

Youth-Wire is designed to give young people a place where those questions can be explored openly.

It will include student opinions, youth commentary, campus issues, interviews, opportunities, bursary alerts, internships, scholarships, competitions, research opportunities and other information relevant to young people's lives.

But it will not simply be an information board. Youth-Wire will also be a space for young people to contribute their own voices. Students can write about what they are experiencing. They can debate issues affecting their generation. They can interview other students. They can highlight problems on campus. They can share ideas about employment, entrepreneurship, education, culture, politics and the future.

This matters because young people should not only be studied, surveyed or spoken about. They should participate in the conversation.

For ERA's student newsroom, Youth-Wire will also become an important place for developing young journalists and writers. Students will have the opportunity to produce work for an audience that understands their experiences because it is living many of the same realities.

The section will also help connect young people with practical opportunities.

Youth-Wire therefore has a simple purpose: To make young people more informed, more connected and more able to participate in shaping their own futures.

Key Takeaway

Young people need more than opportunities. They need information, platforms and spaces where their voices can be heard and their participation can begin.

Questions Worth Asking

• What information do students struggle most to find?

• Which issues affecting young people are not receiving enough attention?

• What opportunity do you wish someone had told you about earlier?

• What should young Africans be talking about more?