Youth Empowerment Training

“To train and empower young generation to be leaders of the future” is our mission statement, the Youth Empowerment Training camp is designed to serve this purpose, and bridge the gap between Chinese students and western counterparts due to fundamental differences in social-culture and education system.

International comparative studies revealed that Chinese students consistently outperform their Western peers in academic exams, but underperform in practical task contests. One of the CCTV International “Dialogue” programme, participated by elite pre-university students from both of the USA and China in 2008, revealed an alarming gap between Chinese students and their Western peers.

During the show, in answering the question on value orientation, 12 American students almost unanimously chose Wisdom and Truth, whereas the Chinese students chose Wealth and Power. While western counterparts appreciate the wisdom as the foremost trait for knowing the truth, and treat the wealth and the power as results of being wise and knowhow, the Chinese students treat the power and wealth as the uppermost for achieving goals, but ignored the means to achieve these goals.

In response to develop an aid program to help poor children in Africa, the Chinese students illustrated it through long Chinese history and civilisation with performing arts in addition to a brief introduction of fundraising and school building. When being asked about the details of aid programme and fund raising, the Chinese students could not come up with an answer. In contrast, the American students described the details of current situation in Africa, from food, education, drinking water, to AIDS, contraception and practical problems, and addressed each element with subjects of what to do, how to prepare, and what is the budget. Everyone is assigned to a clear role within the whole group, and the entire program can be implemented straight away.

While Chinese cultural traditions and social environment influences were clearly evidenced in Chinese student’s performance in the show, the differences in education system also played crucial roles. On top of these, the Chinese one-child policy is often criticised for fostering spoiled, aggressive, selfish, bossy, lonely and maladjusted children with poor social skills, which is classified as Little Emperor Syndrome, when the child is given excessive amounts of attention and indiscriminate pampering from their parents and grandparents. They are separated from social reality and engagement, and are mentally and physically restricted to a heavy load of schoolwork, which lead to the lack of overall awareness apart from book knowledge.

Live Our Dreams Youth Empowerment Training programme is an intense and empowering training camp. The students will be given opportunities to discover, develop and challenge themselves physically, mentally and spiritually with customised purpose-built activities. The programme looks like fun, but is intended  for knowledge and skill development through experience, leading to self realisation and acquisition.

As defined in“Ode to Youth of China”, this purpose built curriculum will be focusing on developing six principle elements to success – Wisdom, Contentment, Strength, Independence, Liberty, and Advancement, through effective group learning exercises as well as creative and experiential activities. The programme will place particular emphasis on developing student’s perception and attitudes toward Environmental Awareness, Making Scientific Inquiry, Speaking Out, Group Work, and Team Building. Students will be encouraged to ask questions, speak out and engage in discussions and debates with instructors and their peers.

Check it out below for other youth programmes that we organise as well as other activities we engage in.