When it comes to educational opportunities, everything is not equal. Alihan Uzun realised having a highly educated mother and a financially supportive father gave him certain advantages. “But not everyone has that support or an understanding of the school system and that has an impact,” he said. As a member of the youth council of the Equal Opportunities Alliance (Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science), Uzun came up with the Dream CV initiative to tackle this problem of inequality in education. “I give workshops to help young people think about their futures and what their ambitions are. Whatever their goals are, then we try to look
at concrete steps to get there by envisioning their dream CV.” For example, someone might be studying to be a caregiver at a vocational school but wants to become a lawyer. “Many people don’t know the steps to get there, they just ended up in a programme because they had to choose something but there was not much planning. I challenge people to think about how they can climb,” he said. And research shows that people from lower economic social backgrounds have fewer opportunities. Uzun is motivated to help change this. “You can have a lot of potential but you don’t know what to do and that’s a loss for you, for the economy, and for society. It’s to everyone’s advantage that people reach their full potential.”