Lesson Note

Subject: Civic Education

Topic: Youth Empowerment

Lesson Objective: by the end of the lesson, the learners should be able to:

1. Explain the concept of empowerment.
2 . State different youth empowerment skills.
3. List the importance and benefits of the different skills.
4. Practice a specific skill.

LESSON SUMMARY/DISCUSSION


MEANING OF YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
Youth empowerment is the process of making young people gain the ability, authority, and the agency to make decision and implement changes in their own lives and lives of other people. It deals with provision of enabling environment which will help young people to make important and vital decisions of life by themselves. It also deals with the process of encouraging youths to do great things for themselves and also the society.
For example, students should be allowed to take up vacation jobs which will help them to manage their time and money. Youth empowerment involves the following:

  • The development of youth confidence and self identity.
  • Encouragement for all to grow together in accountability.
  • Trust in competence of youth and the authenticity of their insights.
  • Helping youths on the best way to utilize and maximize their potentials.
  • Appreciation of the prophetic wisdom and energy of youth to be agents of social change, justice and service.

DIFFERENT FORMS OF YOUTH EMPOWERMENT SKILLS

1. Life Coping Skills
Life coping skills are those skills that we use to offset disadvantages in day-to-day life. It can be seen as a sort of adaptation, such as the finely tuned hearing that many visually impaired people develop.
Life coping skills can be positive or
negative. Positive coping skills help us get through difficult situations as nearly the same level as those who do not have the disadvantage. Negative coping skills however may provide short time relief or distraction but automatically will worsen our disadvantage.
2. Manipulative skills
This is the ability of a worker to handle
an object with the appropriate control and speed of movement required by a task.
Examples are: throwing, kicking, rolling, bouncing etc. This is the ability to manipulate things or object with the help of the body or a body part.

3. Communication skills
Communication is the process by which information is exchanged between individuals. Communication skill is the ability in the area of language understanding, communicating expressively and practical language skills.
It is also one’s ability to transfer ideas
and information to others through which the receiver can get the closest possible meaning.

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS
(a) Listening skills
This is the active process of receiving and responding to spoken (and sometimes unspoken) messages. They are skills which enable one to allow others to express their view about matters one has raised.
This is done through the following ways:
Give the other person attention.
Listen for understanding.
Let the other person know what they said.

(b) Expressive skills
These are skills used to convey to another person the information to which one have access.
Expressive skills can be used to give others information about their behaviour. It enables one to say those things which need to be said.

Expressive skills are done through the following stages:

  • You first need to get the person’s attention.
  • You then convey the information to the person.
  • You need to check the person’s understanding.
  • Necessary information can be put together by asking yourself these questions:
  • The other party is more likely to understand it if you convey it specifically and not defensively. It
  • helps to avoid blaming, criticism, interpreting or making demands on the other person.

(c) Third person skills : are the ones you need to decide whose concerns to work on and what sort of information to exchange. In other words, third person skills are about choosing priorities or deciding what can most usefully be tackled first or next.
(d) Managing the overall process

4. Intellectual Skills.
Intellectual skills are critical, analytical,
synthesizing problem-solving capacity.
This skill can be acquired through the following ways.

  • By learning
  • By doing critical thinking
  • Application of basic principles and having structured arguments.
  • TYPES OF INTELLECTUAL SKILLS
  • (a). Mathematical reasoning: Mathematical reasoning is the ability to analyze and calculate with abstract pattern.  It is the ability to work mentally with numbers and symbols. Like language, mathematics is essentially a set of abstract concept that requires intellectual skills.
  • (b) Ability to describe: This is the ability to describe things, and human beings need to master it from.infancy when they learn concepts like colour, shape and size. Later in life, people often describe things to convey information to others. For example, a car owner telling a mechanic the kind of noises the car engine is making.
  • (c) Vocabulary ability: This is the ability to describe and use vocabulary. Our vocabulary tends to expand with experience, so that as adults, we can correctly use vocabulary.
  • (d). Inductive reasoning: This is the reasoning to uncertain conclusions. It is reaching tentative inferences about things, or generalizations.
  • BENEFITS OF YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
  • Youth Empowerment helps in developing the potentials of youths.
  • It reduces the problem of low self-esteem, as young people begin to learn that they are important in the society
  • It helps young people to learn how to take responsibility of their own affairs.
  • Youth Empowerment heips in investing in the future of youth in the society.
  • Through Youth Empowerment, young people are equipped with vocational skills and they learn to be self reliant.
  • It reduces the level ofignorance and crime among young peopie.
  • Through Youth Empowerment, young people have the opportunity to develop skills they need to become influential members of the society.

LESSON EVALUATION
1. What is youth empowerment?
2. What are the benefits of youth
empowerment?

3. Mention some life coping skills?
4. Give four types of intellectual skills.
5. What is a listening skill?
6. Explain what you understand by expressive skills.