Equipping youngsters to navigate adulthood with resilience, confidence, and dignity | Keith Azzopardi Tanti

Keith Azzopardi Tanti is parliamentary secretary for youths, research and innovation

It is necessary to strengthen young people’s concept of active citizenship, including the rights and responsibilities that come with it. It is also necessary to strengthen their recognition and respect for democratic values and cultural diversity. This can be done through the acquisition of necessary life skills, which enable them to successfully overcome the challenges that come their way.

Fostering life skills through youth work activities is also important in helping young people determine and forge their futures through quality employment, social inclusion, and active citizenship.

Aġenzija Żgħażagħ’s Life Skills Lab summer programme is not simply another summer initiative. It is a deliberate political act to equip young people in Malta and Gozo with the skills they need to navigate adulthood with resilience, confidence, and dignity.

Aġenzija Żgħażagħ does not run this programme because it is summer, but to strengthen young people’s skills through youth work. This is a national youth policy measure that combines holistic education with empowerment, participation, and self-confidence. This year’s Life Skills Lab is packed with a number of programmes and initiatives that will engage young people to learn and have fun at the same time. Two interesting programmes enable young adolescents to learn the skills they need to navigate the transition from primary school to middle school and from middle school to secondary school. Young adolescents often worry about how to navigate this transition. Questions about the new school, the timetable, new friends, and social dynamics are usually common and valid amongst young people. While their schools prepare them academically, the Life Skills Lab complements this by focusing on the emotional, social, and practical tools they need to make these transitions confidently.

These programmes will help young adolescents develop communication skills, emotional intelligence, time management, and problem-solving strategies. These are not just soft skills; they are essential survival skills necessary in a school environment.

Other programmes include drama, music, and film, which are used as part of the youth work approach through which teamwork is enhanced, creativity is sparked, confidence is built, and public speaking skills are developed.

The boot camps introduced this year demonstrate how youth work is responsive and can bring youth policy to life. Boot camps are similar to crash courses, but youth workers describe them as spaces where transformation happens. The agency does not offer these to fast-track the acquisition of skills, but to instil purpose, confidence, and self-belief.  Whether focused on financial literacy, environmental sustainability, human rights, virtual reality, or creative industries like film or photography, the agency’s boot camps are designed to offer intensive, hands-on learning experiences that extend beyond the classroom.

We believe that young people are not passive recipients. We want to engage them in co-creation, creative thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making.  The pace is fast, but the impact is long-term. To further improve this impact, residential camps are also part of this year’s Life Skills Lab programme. These are not just overnight stays but an experience of independent living.  Whether at Villa Psaigon or the Marsaxlokk youth activity centres, young people step away from home and enter a space where they can focus on developing life skills in real-time. From managing shared responsibilities to building trust through various challenging scenarios, these camps simulate a setting that fosters the development of friendships, independence, and self-identity.

Such camps strengthen a sense of community and belonging, which is essential during adolescence and crucial in mitigating the loneliness and anxious moments that this period brings to young people’s lives.

Therefore, from a government perspective, this is a strategic intervention aimed at building stronger mental well-being and solidarity at the grassroots level. It is about giving young people a temporary respite from digital overload and a chance to reconnect with themselves and one another.

Life skills, as described in the Council Conclusions adopted by the Council of Minsiters’ during Malta’s EU Presidency (2017/C 189/06), are a set of personal and social skills acquired through youth work and non-formal and informal learning that can be used to address issues, questions, and problems commonly encountered in the course of daily human life. Few programmes accredit these skills, but Aġenzija Żgħażagħ is offering an accredited award in leadership for young people involved in organisations, student councils and other committees. This award can be proudly included in a CV to enhance all the academic qualifications acquired.

The Award in Leadership consists of four modules, which range from leadership as a concept to strategic planning, and enables young people to be introduced to both theoretical and practical aspects of leadership.

Lastly, to give young people the space to relax and share their ideas, we are introducing various clubs on several interesting themes this year. This was a deliberate move to extend non-formal learning activities and create spaces where young people can pursue their interests and form a community on their terms, with their interests.

The role of Aġenzija Żgħażagħ in the summer Life Skills Lab is not that of service delivery, but rather a role that develops spaces for young people to flourish and learn how to take charge rather than follow orders.