It is widely acknowledged that young people should be compelled to do engage with community service to help others without being paid. While this trend has admittedly certain benefits, I would contend that these are overshadowed by some potential downsides.
There are some advantages associated with helping community without paid including mitigating high level of illiteracy and innumeracy and acquiring various valuable knowledge and skills. During a time of spiralling living costs, fewer and fewer families have enough money to for their children to go to school, leading to general high level of illiteracy. With the support of both local authorities and young people, these children could have chance to learn some core subjects such as Math, Literature, and Science, opening up many further job opportunities for such underprivileged children. Moreover, by helping people in the community such as at homeless shelters, young people would gain social skills such as problem solving and communication skills which are widely regarded as keys to success in a competitive labor market.
On the other hand, requiring people doing unpaid to support community could be disadvantageous in a few aspects. It is obvious that young people have been dealing with numerous subjects at school as well as a huge amount of workload at offices, causing much stress and anxiety. If they have to be responsible for such activities for community without being paid, they might not have enough time for leisure activities to unwind, leading to burnout and potential health problems. Furthermore, such unpaid work might be considered as tedious and unappealing, which in turn makes young people feel resentful and obligated, causing low productivity and effectiveness.
In conclusion, while undertaking unpaid community service bring several benefits such as reducing illiteracy and innumeracy levels and developing valuable skills needed for future, I remain firmly convinced that the downsides including potential risks to human well-being and ineffectiveness surpass any possible advantages.