World Youth Skills Day - 15th July

The World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) is celebrated on July 15 every year by the global community. To enable youths to make a smooth transition to work, skill development and enhancement is considered the most important means.

This article provides relevant information regarding an important international day celebrated globally, that is World Youth Skills Day, in the context of the IAS Exam.

Aspirants can find the information important for both UPSC Prelims and Mains (GS 2 & GS 3). To know the relevance to the particular topic under Mains, check UPSC Syllabus.

The candidates can also prepare relevant information for their upcoming government exams from the links below:

Background/ History

• The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in December 2014 and declared 15th July to be celebrated as World Youth Skills Day.
• It is celebrated every year with an objective to achieve better socio-economic status for present day youths by addressing the challenges of unemployment and under employment.
• Also, this day marks the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.

Significance of the day

• World Youth Skills Day events provide a unique opportunity for dialogue between various stakeholders such as young people, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, firms, employers’ and workers’ organizations, policymakers and development partners.
• The participants in the yearly event have also highlighted the ever-increasing importance of skills as the world is thriving on a transition towards a sustainable model of development.
• The main focus to celebrate this day is to highlight the importance of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) as a way to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goal 4. To read more about Sustainable Development Goals, check the linked article.

WYSD Theme

The themes of the recent two years of World Youth Skills Day are given below:

Significance of TVET

• Due to the advent of Industrial revolution 4.0, the needs of the jobs are transformed by the technologies and there is a need to reskill more than 1 billion people by 2030. Also, read, Fourth Industrial Revolution – RSTV In depth.
• By 2022, approximately 42% of core skills required to perform existing jobs are anticipated to change.
• In a situation where the world is facing a reskilling emergency, TVET is expected to address the multiple demands by assisting youth and adults to develop the skills they need for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.

To more about the Higher and Technical Education in India, check the linked article.

World Youth Skills Day (WYSD), 2021

Source – United Nations

Organisers

The World Youth Skills Days is organised by:

• The Permanent Missions of Portugal and Sri Lanka to the United Nations,
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
• International Labour Organisation (ILO) and
• Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth.

Also read about the United Nations, from the linked article.

Objectives

The objectives of the World Youth Skills Day 2021 are:

• To assess the situation of young people regarding skills and work during and after the COVID-19 pandemic; learn how they have been living through the crisis; highlight success stories of youth innovation and resilience;
• To debate on prospects for skills development and the world of work as economies recover, and on the effectiveness of national recovery plans and support from development partners.
• To reflect on how TVET stakeholders can collaborate to scale up skills development and help reconcile the short-term need for economic recovery with the urgent need for accelerating the transition to sustainable development.

Highlights

• A virtual event was organised by the organisers mentioned above, which offered an opportunity to reflect on skills that are needed today and for the future.
• The participants took stock of how the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector has adapted to the pandemic and recession, how TVET institutions can participate in the recovery, and discussed priorities they should adopt for the post-COVID-19 world.
• UNESCO estimates that schools were either fully or partially closed for more than 30 weeks between March 2020 and May 2021 in half the countries of the world. 157 million learners were affected due to full school closures in 19 countries, and about 768 million learners were affected by partial school closures.
• According to a survey conducted by technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions in association with UNESCO, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank, it is outlined that distance training had become the most common way of imparting skills.
• It has been estimated that youths are more affected than adults in the pandemic period, and ILO estimates indicate that adult employment fell only by 3.7 per cent in 2020 when compared to the fall of 8.7 per cent for youths globally. The most prominent fall is witnessed in middle-income countries.

World Youth Skills Day – UPSC Notes:-Download PDF Here

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