Visionaries

A fridge that notices automatically that the milk carton is empty and of course gets a new one, a multi-functioning jacket to which the MP3 player is directly connected and with which the mobile phone is charged: visions of young people developed within the nation-wide innovation initiative Youth thinks future. The Just More multi-function jacket obtains its energy exclusively from the movement energy of the person wearing it.

Young people and the future
Young Voices about the Future WMA-File, 3:47 min.

Alongside technical possibilities, energy and environmental questions are also evidently aspects considered when young people "think tomorrow today". The increasing globalisation and demographic development of the country are taken into account just as much as a fair deal between the generations, education and security.

No science-fiction novel

But what will it be like, the future for young people in Germany? Their ideas by no means resemble a science-fiction novel. A young woman from Berlin, for example, believes that family life could well become more traditional – albeit without the hitherto conventional role models. And they imagine that everyday working life will become more intellectually demanding. Young people between the age of 12 and 25 are fairly confident about their own future, as the recent Shell Youth Survey revealed. In East and West Germany just over half are optimistic about the years to come, while only less than 10% have a rather gloomy view of their personal future.

Creating your own future

The science of futurology is also concerned with these questions. Yet just as the questioning of the oracle of Delphi demanded one’s own interpretation of the answer, so modern futurologists make no predictions. They portray possible future developments, envision possible scenarios. Here looking into the crystal ball is far less helpful than casting a glance at the past and the present. The pictures of the future thus obtained enable us to take action. We can adapt ourselves in time, further or even provoke developments. So can the future be created? Professor Rolf Kreibich, director of the Institute for Future Studies and Technology Assessment in Berlin, is convinced of this. And he believes that the individual is the most important element in the entire concept: " If the individual fails to act, then nothing happens. And we should just stop thinking that everything is determined by those above us and by politics and the economy." After all, we all decide for ourselves where we shop, which car we drive and much more.

Lifelong learning

Many young people in Germany, however, feel that they have little room for manoeuvre with regard to their professional future. Anxiety about vocational training and job possibilities prevail, and they tend to take a pessimistic view of their chances in the working world, according to a survey carried out by the Bertelsmann Foundation in 2005. 45% of those questioned were doubtful about their possibilities of finding the job they really wanted after their training. So gloom and doom as prospects for Germany’s youth? Professor Rolf Kreibich takes a more differentiated view: young people with foreign-language competence, who have a good vocational training and perhaps also soft skills, certainly have good job prospects. For young people who are not so well educated, however, the future is less promising. But better training and continuous qualification can overcome this dichotomy, according to the futurologist. So lifelong learning is on the agenda.