The organisation threw open its doors to local young people to celebrate Youth World Skills Day.

According to the United Nations, young people are almost three times more likely to be unemployed than adults, and continuously exposed to lower quality of jobs, greater labour market inequalities, and longer and more insecure school-to-work transitions. 

Joblink Plus chief executive officer Christine Shewry said by welcoming the local youths into their workplace, they were able to gain an insight into what the adults in their lives do and what skills are needed in today’s workplaces and into the future.

“Throughout nearly all of their childhood and teen years, children are segregated from adults in day care, school, sports, and other activities,” Ms Shewry said. 

“If they’re restricted to the company of the same-age all the time, they miss out on the benefits of being part of a larger, diverse community. 

“In the past, children learned right alongside people of all ages as they gathered food, built shelters, and performed every other skill necessary to sustain a community. Survival skills, and behavioural and emotional skills as well.”

In addition to gaining knowledge about the workforce, the children and staff enjoyed an afternoon of games, afternoon tea and plenty of laughs.