At 10 Downing Street

On Friday 23 September, MMK visited 10 Downing Street to deliver their communiqué to the Prime Minister, in his capacity as the UK's Head Delegate to the G20 Youth Summit.

From 17 to 24 July, he attended the Youth G20 (Y20) Summit in Indonesia as the UK's Head Delegate. It was here that they adopted the historic Y20 Communiqué, embracing their differences to reach a consensus on the critical themes of Global Health, a Sustainable and Liveable Planet, Youth Employment, Digital Transformation, and Diversity and Inclusion.

Among the key messages of the communiqué are the importance of meaningful multilateralism and youth participation, particularly in light of the lack of consensus reached in recent G20 ministerial meetings, and recognising trust as the building block of good governance. With 35% of the UK population stating they trust the national government - lower than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average (41%) - it is clear that urgent action must be taken by the new government to engage in more inclusive sustainable and meaningful governance at all levels of society.

In particular, MMK has been trying to ensure that verbal communication training is embedded as part of the national curricula to ensure young people from the most deprived areas gain the skills they need to be able to thrive.

Young people from certain regions in the UK are less likely to access employment opportunities in comparison with their counterparts in other regions owing to their lack of soft skills such as public speaking, leadership and professional written communication. This is a major cause behind why unemployment rates for 16-24-year-olds stand at 14% in the North East compared to 6.5% in the South East.

Mohammad urges the Department for Education to ensure that the education system is reformed to better equip young people from the most deprived regions with employability skills through the addition of soft skills training in the national curriculum.

MMK said:

“The views of young people have been consistently excluded from the decision-making table. This is gravely unfortunate as young people have energy, enthusiasm and insight to remedy some of the country’s most pressing issues. It was fantastic to be able to present the Y20 Communiqué, a document full of policies designed by the youth for the youth, to the new Government, thereby ensuring that young people’s voices are amplified. We urge the Government to adopt some of the policies and to increase the opportunities for young people to influence and design future policy.”

In relation to his proposal about soft skills education, he said:

Successful Levelling Up must ensure that the regional variances in young people’s soft skill competency, which continues to exacerbate generational regional inequality and hinders young people from climbing up the social mobility ladder, is remedied.

I urge the UK Government to strengthen its commitment to levelling up by ensuring that soft skills training becomes part of the national curriculum by 2025. This will ensure that every child across the country has the necessary employability skills that will increase their opportunities to maximise both their and the UK’s potential.”