Young Innovation Foundation Encourages Gen-Z to Enter the Green Jobs Sector

JAKARTA - Innovation Muda Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that focuses on sustainability education, encourages the Ziennial Generation (Gen-Z) to enter the green jobs sector. This is done through one of its programs entitled "Geliat Generation Sustainability". This activity was successfully held on Saturday, March 23, 2024, at Karsa Space, Bandung City.

Carrying the theme "Youth with Real Impact", this activity was attended by 53 young people from various youth organizations and communities in the city of Bandung, including student organizations, youth entrepreneurship communities, charity and philanthropic communities, environmental communities, cultural activists, as well as literacy and education.

The participants took part in a series of activities which included the Talkshow "Youth with Real Impact" by presenting the CEO of Olahkarsa Unggul Ananta, CEO of Discovery Project and The Local Enablers Faris Prima Fadhilah, Executive Director of the Greeneration Foundation Erdy Syryadarma, focus group discussion, mini quiz, sustainability action campaign and ended with the distribution of takjil and breaking the fast together.

Executive Director of the Innovation Young Foundation, Restu Andini, in his speech said that green jobs are an important key in realizing low-carbon development that is environmentally friendly. In encouraging widespread adoption of green jobs, the Innovation Young Foundation has designed various program initiatives to prepare young people who are competent and interested in sustainability issues.

"As part of our efforts to encourage the millennial generation to enter the green jobs sector, we have formed a community known as "Innovation Muda Connection". This community is a forum for young people from various regions who have an interest in Gen-Z issues, education, and sustainability in preparing green jobs in the future," said Restu.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Olahkarsa, Unggul Ananta, who is also on the Advisory Board of the Young Innovation Foundation and is one of the speakers in this program, explained that the trend of sustainable and low-carbon business is currently increasing along with the increasingly complex challenges of the climate crisis. This has implications for the increasing need for green jobs in various industrial sectors, a condition which of course opens up opportunities for the younger generation to have careers in the future.

"The trend of sustainable, low-carbon business is increasing and has the opportunity to create green jobs, which we know as green jobs. The projected need for green jobs in Indonesia will reach 4.4 million in 2030, a very large number and certainly an opportunity for the younger generation to make a career in it," explained Unggul.

However, according to Unggul, the biggest challenge in green jobs is how to prepare the human resources and skills needed to meet the needs of green jobs. For Unggul, these skills are the main capital for the younger generation so they can be absorbed in green jobs.

"For this reason, the Young Innovation Foundation is committed to developing educational programs for the younger generation which aims to improve the skills needed to support green jobs. So it is hoped that the Young Innovation Foundation can prepare the young generation not only to enter the green jobs market but also to become leaders and innovators in green economy and sustainability initiatives in their respective environments," concluded Unggul

After this event ends, Young Innovation will continue to inspire young people to get involved in sustainable activities, such as campaigns to fight for sustainability through social media. Apart from that, Young Innovation also encourages young people to care about inclusivity by collecting prizes to give to friends with disabilities to commemorate International Down Syndrome Day.