July 15 was recognized by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly as World Youth Skills Day. This day exists to reflect and act on the importance of providing young people with the necessary skills for employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. The Government of Canada recognizes this day in alignment with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG) to achieve SDG 4: Quality Education and SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic growth.
The SDGs@UofT Institutional Strategic Initiative (ISI) is a tri-campus initiative at U of T that seeks to advance research that advances and promotes action on the SDGs to inform the post 2030 agenda for sustainable development. This ISI serves a supportive role in conducting research to advance the SDGs and inform future global goals. We are two U of T students currently working full-time with the SDGs@UofT ISI.
Working with the ISI has provided us with a breadth of knowledge and skills that we strongly believe will support us in achieving our future goals. Between the both of us, we have developed a wide variety of skills such as conducting literature searches/reviews, conducting environmental scans, developing a high-level impact evaluation and data visualization strategy for the initiative, facilitating meetings with internal and external stakeholders, coordinating events, and supporting the SDGs Student Advisory Committee. These skills equip us with the tools we would need to work towards our shared goals.
One of these shared goals is to learn about the different career pathways in Public Health and Health Sciences and identify which would be of interest to us. Recognizing these will help us narrow down the paths we would like to take when we pursue further studies, as well as when deciding on our future careers. Another goal we have been able to work towards is building a network within the Public Health space through scans, meetings, events, and communications. Thirdly, we have a shared goal of working in roles dedicated to making a difference for health and wellbeing at local, national, and global capacities. Whether the work we are doing supports the U of T student body, our local community partners, or global partners, our hope is to support work being done to address the social determinants of health and the intersections of the SDGs.
The SDGs@UofT initiative has also contributed to youth skills development across the three U of T campuses through its Student Advisory Committee which helps support the ISI’s engagement with students at U of T. Graduate and undergraduate students on the Committee help lend their expertise within two Sub-Committees: the Events & Knowledge Mobilization Sub-committee and the Communications Sub-committee. Committee members have the opportunity to be chairs of the committee and develop strong leadership skills, secretaries of the committee and develop organization skills, and more broadly, committee members can develop event planning, teamwork and communication skills by overseeing tri-campus student engagement activities. Members also have the chance to gain marketing and promotional experience by developing website content and social media strategies.
An upcoming opportunity for students that the Student Advisory Committee is working closely on is the Hack the Valley hackathon. Held at the Instructional Centre (IC) at the University of Toronto Scarborough, students from multiple universities come together for a 36-hour tournament to solve a variety of technical, environmental, and social problems. Hack the Valley is a student developed organization founded by Ralph Maamari and supported by Frederic Pun, past students in computer science and management at U of T.
Hack the Valley is an incredible opportunity as it allows students to develop crucial skills such as technical skills, critical thinking, problem solving, and teamwork. Hack the Valley goes beyond providing an opportunity for skill development as it is also a venue for networking with the organization’s many sponsors who may also be recruiting students for employment after graduation. Furthermore, there are prizes attached to each question, with many sponsors funding student startups or providing scholarships.
Hack the Valley was initiated from an idea to a world-known hackathon with the help of The HUB at UTSC: an innovation centre and startup incubator for student entrepreneurs. The HUB provides students with coaching, workshops, seed capital, and access to professional experts and investors. In addition to Hack the Valley, The UTSC Hub has also played a pivotal role for several U of T students and alumni in their entrepreneurial journeys. The Hub has supported in the success of more than 150 companies led or co-led by U of T students/alum. For example, the UTSC Hub supported Luna Yu, a graduate of the Master of Environmental Science program from UTSC. Luna helped form “Genecis”, a company that uses biotechnology to convert food waste into biodegradable plastics. Another example is “EVOLVERE”, a startup by Tanisha Sylvester who did her undergraduate degree at UTSC and started a platform that allows students to share their personal experiences in hopes of improving student mental health.
The UTSC Hub and the SDGs@UofT ISI, both housed within the Office of the Vice-Principal Research and Innovation at UTSC, are two of several examples across U of T that offer opportunities for youth skills building. There are many opportunities such as these available to students at U of T to help them discover and develop essential skills for work and entrepreneurship. For example, co-operative, practicum, and work-integrated learning programs offered through post-secondary institutions are valuable tools for experiential learning, offering a competitive edge to students in the programs as they pursue their academic journeys.
In light of World Youth Skills Day, we invite you to take this moment to dream big. Then ask yourself, what do you need to get there? U of T just might have the supports to make your dreams come true.
Abisha Pathmanathan (she/her) is pleased to be completing her student placement with the SDG@UofT. After completing a Bachelor of Science at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), she is pursuing her Master of Public Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in Social and Behavioral Health Sciences (Health Promotion) to enhance her passions and knowledge about health promotion and project/program management. Stemming from her work as a student Program Coordinator and Health Promotion Assistant at UTSC’s Health & Wellness Centre, she has developed great pleasure in recognizing, informing, and supporting folks in navigating their health and social determinants of health. With the SDG@UofT she hopes to explore these passions on local, national, and global scales by advocating for and supporting our scholars and students in conducting transdisciplinary work that can advance the SDGs and inform the post-2030 global goals.
Javeria Sajid is an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto Scarborough pursuing a Bachelor of Science in the Health Studies Co-op program. She is interested in learning about public health systems, population health interventions, and how health outcomes in different populations are influenced by resource allocation at institutional levels. She is currently completing her first co-op work term at SDGs@UofT, and will be completing her second co-op work term at the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Javeria is the current Vice President of Operations for the Students of English Literature & Film where she incorporates her double major in Creative Writing, maintaining her creative skillset, and has developed strong teambuilding and leadership skills alongside her science-focused career path. Javeria plans to pursue graduate studies in Public Health Sciences or Health Sciences within Health Systems Research, Health Promotion, or Epidemiology.