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Young people take part in a conference at the National Assembly for Wales. They debate youth participation in politics, voice their opinion about why young people are not engaged and discuss ways in which the National Assembly for Wales could address this. The youngest Assembly Member talks about the importance of young people participating in democracy.

Using this clip as a stimulus, students can research the work of the Scottish Youth Parliament. They could discuss the issues raised by the people in the clip concerning why more young people don’t engage in politics. Students can discuss their take on this subject. They can perform an exercise where they think of a social or economic issue that concerns them, then consider what their options would be for bringing this issue into the political arena, such as letter writing, emailing, attending a meeting in their local area, or organising/ joining a demonstration. Hold a debate in class about the voting age, particularly in relation to the drop in voting age to sixteen for the Scottish independence referendum.