World Youth Skills Day: Theme, History, Significance and Facts

4to40.com July 14, 2024 Public Awareness 312 Views

World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) is celebrated on the 15th of July every year. Its objective is to spread awareness about technical, and vocational education & training, and the development of other skills relevant to both local and global economies. In the article below read more about World Youth Skills Day history, its theme, significance, and events, etc.

World Youth Skills Day: 15 July

In 2014, the United Nations General Assembly declared July 15 as a World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship. The day provides a unique opportunity for dialogue between young people, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, firms, employers, policymakers, etc. The Skill India Mission was also launched on this day, that is on July 15.

The day also highlights the important role of skilled youth in addressing current and future global challenges. It is known that Skill India is an initiative of the central government which was launched to empower the youth skill and make them more employable and more productive in their work environment.

This year also World Youth Skills Day will take place in a challenging context due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures that have led to the worldwide closure of technical and vocational training education and training (TVET) institutions, alarming the vitality of skills development.

According to UNESCO, it is estimated that nearly 70% of the world’s learners are affected by school closures across education levels. TVET institutions survey is jointly done by UNESCO, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Bank reported that distance learning is now the most common way of conveying skills with sizable difficulties regarding among others like curricula adaptation, trainee, and trainer preparedness, connectivity, or assessment and certification processes.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, currently, more than 1 in 6 young people are out of work. In such a time where young people are called upon to contribute to the recovery effort, it is necessary for them to be equipped with the skills to successfully manage upcoming challenges and therefore the resilience to alter to future disruptions.

World Youth Skills Day: Theme and Event

According to UN official website, The theme for World Youth Skills Day 2023 is ‘Skilling teachers, trainers and youth for a transformative future‘. It highlights the essential role that teachers, trainers and other educators play in providing skills for youth to transition to the labour market and to actively engage in their communities and societies.

The theme of World Youth Skills Day 2021 is “Reimagining Youth Skills Post-Pandemic“. The Permanent Missions of Sri Lanka and Portugal to the UN, the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, UNESCO, and ILO will organise a virtual event that will offer an opportunity to reflect on skills that are needed today and for the future. The day takes place in a challenging context, with the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting in the widespread disruption of the TVET sector.

In 2020, the online panel discussion will be organised focussing on skills for a Resilient Youth in the Era of COVID-19 and beyond. Various virtual events focused on the theme of “Skills for a Resilient Youth“. The impact of COVID-19 crisis on skills development and therefore to explore strategies in response to the unfolding economic crisis. This will help in preparing young people to develop their capacities to respond to rapid changes in employment and entrepreneurship in sectors that are hardest hit by the crisis. Therefore we can say that this in the long term is to adapt skills development systems to changes in the economy of the world that the COVID-19 pandemic and recession will bring.

The theme for World Youth Skills Day 2024 is Youth Skills for Peace and Development. It highlights the crucial role that young people play in peacebuilding and conflict resolution efforts.

2024: Youth Skills for Peace and Development
2023: Skilling teachers, trainers and youth for a transformative future
2022: Learning and skills for life, work, and sustainable development
2021: Reimagining Youth Skills Post-Pandemic
2020: Skills for a Resilient Youth
2019: Learning to learn for life and work
2018: Improving the image of TVET

About the event:

The event is organised by the Permanent Missions of Sri Lanka and Portugal to the UN, the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, UNESCO, and ILO. The virtual event brings together young people, the UN Member States, TVET institutions, the private sector, workers’ organisations, policymakers, and development partners.

In India, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship organised a digital conclave to mark the occasion.

History:

15 July is declared as World Youth Skills Day by adopting a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2014. The main aim of the day is to achieve better socio-economic conditions for today’s youth in terms of challenges of unemployment and underemployment.

Significance:

Youth unemployment is increasing which is the most significant problem facing today’s economies and societies in the world for developed and developing countries alike. According to the latest Global Trends for Youth 2020: technology and the future of jobs, since 2017, there has been an upward trend in the number of youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET).

Around 259 million young people in 2016 were classified as NEET and this number rose to an estimated 267 million in 2019 and it is said it will rise to around 273 million in 2021. In terms of percentage, the trend is slightly up from 21.7% in 2015 to 22.4% in 2020 and implying that the international target to reduce the NEET rate by 2020 will be missed.

In 2014, the General Assembly declared to celebrate World Youth Skills Day on 15 July with an aim to provide a chance for young youth, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, and public and private sector stakeholders to recognise and celebrate the importance of preparing young youth with skills of employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship.

In 2014, the General Assembly declared to celebrate World Youth Skills Day on 15 July with an aim to provide a chance for young youth, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, and public and private sector stakeholders to recognise and celebrate the importance of preparing young youth with skills of employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship.

World Youth Skills Day Facebook Banners / Posters & Banners:

World Youth Skills Day Facebook Cover Poster

World Youth Skills Day 15 July Free Banner

Role of Technical and Vocational Education and Training:

In the 2030 Agenda, education and training are central to achieving. The vision of the Incheon Declaration: Education 2030 is fully captured by Sustainable Development Goal 4 “Ensure comprehensive and equitable quality education and develop lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

Education 2030 imparts attention to technical and vocational skills development, mainly approach to affordable quality Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). With this the acquisition of technical and vocational skills of employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship; the elimination of gender disparity, and ensuring access for the vulnerable.

TVET addresses the various demands of an economic, social, and environmental nature by helping youth and adults in developing the skills that are required for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship. It also promotes equitable, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and supports transitions to green economies and environmental sustainability.

It also helps in providing the skills required for self-employment. TVET also improves the responsiveness to changing demand in skills by companies and communities, increases productivity, and increases wage levels. It reduces the access barriers to the world of work via work-based learning and ensures that skills gained are recognised and certified.

For low-skilled people also TVET offers skills development opportunities who are under-or-unemployed, out of school youth, and individuals not in education, employment, and training (NEETs).

World Youth Skills Day: Key facts

In the whole world, one in five people is NEET which is not in employment, education, and training. Three out of four young NEETs are women.
Between 1997 and 2017, the young population grew by 139 million and the population of the youth labour force shrank by 58.7 million.
Almost 2 out of 5 young workers in emerging and developing economies live on less than US$3.10 a day.
Before the current crisis, young people were 3 times as likely as adults (25 years and older) to be unemployed. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, currently, more than 1 in 6 young people are out of work.
For more than 100 years, blending distance learning with practical skills development has proved effective in TVET. In 1910, due to the typhoid epidemic and an urgent need arise, Australia introduced its first distance TVET courses to train health inspectors by correspondence while they worked.