Are Young People Living in Rural Areas at a Disadvantage When Accessing Services - Assignment Example

But despite the advantages of life in country-side, one in five households in the rural areas lives below the poverty line. The rural population suffers from certain issues such as the chronic lack of affordable housing, difficulty in accessing key services and poor access to training and employment opportunities.The rural the population, especially young people, face hard-ships accessing the basic facilities and services. This may be because of a rising cost of employment or administrative compulsions but the fact remains that more and more young people are migrating towards the bigger towns or major cities in search of a better future.

This is more so in case of the young people who are about to make the transition from education to the practise field. Over the past few years, public policy has become more focused on achieving the social and economic participation of rural youth as they make the transition into adulthood with a view to provide those more chances to become productive participants in the society. Significant attention and resources have been devoted to engaging greater numbers of young people in post-16 education and training and raising their attainment. (1).Young people are a priority group for the Countryside Agency in the UK.

They make up a significant proportion of the rural population – 30% is aged under-25 and more than 18%, approximately 1.7 million, are under-15. The rural youth has a major stake in yielding the productivity of the natural, economic and social resources. However, to optimize the process they must be given the opportunity to build their livelihoods on their own terms. Also, the general tendency of treating youth as a “problem” rather than a resource and a source of needed solutions.

A major barrier to developing such an understanding and developmental approach is the fact that rural development professionals often do not have a clear understanding of how young people in rural areas access and use the resources to achieve their livelihood strategies.