how can you solve this with architecture?

By providing a space for the youth to gain the skills they require. Like a vocational school, maybe.

Another prime example of how irrelevant architecture school is to professional practice. 

Okay, thanks for your "help"

This sounds like a thesis for a masters in social work, not architecture. 

What does the architecture of an apprenticeship program look like? What could it look like? What urban planning or spatial layouts could communities implement to support local commerce, and associated jobs across skill ranges? These are issues architects can and should investigate.

The project needs more focus.  A vocational school for construction could be a good way to merge the topic with an architectural solution, or maybe a hands on sublimental architecture program where arch students can build stuff...see taliesin West....Why not create a sort of scaffolding where experimentation can happen within.  Where...Your project is the framework that allows for experimental works within its organizational structure/constraints ....like a microcosm of Manhattanism....the scale can be park-like or even smaller...big-box store like...a series of raised paths and platforms...with the spaces/plots between  being open for small architectural experiments...or something...

"I wanted to work with youth employment, since it is one of the biggest problems faced nowadays."

Is it, really?

There seems to be a few misconceptions in your proposed thesis project. In my research one of the biggest barriers to youth employment is a permanent address for job applications and opening a bank account. Not disinterested attitudes. 

The population of at-risk-youth is rising, because some youth do not have a stable living environment for various reasons. I would encourage you to talk to a social worker, visit a youth shelter such as Covenant House and reach out to someone at the Schultz Family Foundation for a more solid thesis proposal.

https://archinect.com/news/art...

and extrapolate

edit: also stop with the sweeping generalizations about the problems of youth. Find the site, learn about your age group of interest, and then you will be able to make decisions and not cast judgements.

I would suggest thinking about the typical classroom and it’s weaknesses, especially with an increasingly popular “project-based” learning, and how this could incorporate a vocational curriculum. Vocational schools already exist, even at the high school level, so I would push that idea further. Is it something you address with massing or programming? 

I think you’re hung up on the idea of unemployment which is not an problem we can directly address with architectural design, and you are making a huge generalization that youth are unemployed because students are uninterested in education. Maybe the typical classroom is outdated and you can introduce an new type of classroom that is compatible in the internet, smartphones, social media etc - things that didn’t exist 50 years ago.

I think the idea of a “new classroom” has been played out a lot, but maybe you can approach it through vocational schools? Just move away from the unemployment issue, it’s a loaded topic that feels like a stretch when you say you can solve it through architecture.

vuyhjvjkub 

I ran into this issue a lot in grad school, and later as a juror for grad studios. In programs that push socially conscious projects / thesis, you can sort the projects into two categories:

1) Projects that use architecture to solve a problem.

2) Projects that use architecture to create a space where other people solve the problem.

Not everyone agrees, but I would argue if your project falls into #2, it's not a valid thesis.