World Youth Skills Day is marked on July 15 (Thursday) and is being celebrated today across the globe including Pakistan. The day is dedicated to encouraging youth to celebrate the value of acquiring skills like building, making, and creating as a way to achieve personal success and fulfillment.
On December 18, 2014, the United Nations General Assembly declared July 15 as World Youth Skills Day after passing a resolution. Many countries across the globe first celebrated World Youth Skill Day on July 15, 2015.
As we mark World youth skills day 2021; join the conversation https://t.co/lnCgNjgxDw
— Caroline Njuki (@muthoninjuki) July 13, 2021
As per United Nations, this day celebrates the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship. World Youth Skills Day plays an important role as it provides opportunities for dialogue between young people, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, firms, employers’ and workers’ organizations, policymakers, and development partners. Participants have highlighted the ever-increasing significance of skills as the world is embarking on a transition towards a sustainable model of development.
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The theme of World Youth Skills Day 2021
This year’s World Youth Skills Day commemoration comes amid the continuation of the Coronavirus pandemic. Youngsters, aged between 15 and 24 years, are especially suffering due to the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Permanent Missions of Sri Lanka and Portugal to the UN, UNESCO, ILO, and the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth are jointly organizing a virtual event this World Youth Skills Day to offer an opportunity to shed some light on the skills that youngsters need in the present time and for the future.
Celebration of World Youth Skills Day 2021 and launch UNESCO TVET Policies and Training Manuals. In attendance CAS National Treasury Eric Wafukho @ericwafukho PS VTT Dr. Margaret Mwakima @mwakima_dr TVETA Chair Prof. Ferej @Langat_Kipkirui @cdacc_tvet @EduMinKenya pic.twitter.com/iqIuVSvHTQ
— TVET Authority Kenya (@TVETAKenya) July 15, 2021
“World Youth Skills Day 2021 will pay tribute to the resilience and creativity of youth through the crisis. Participants [of the virtual event] will take stock of how technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems have adapted to the pandemic and recession, think of how those systems can participate in the recovery, and imagine priorities they should adopt for the post-COVID-19-world,” said UN.
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Young people are almost three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and continuously exposed to lower quality of jobs, greater market inequalities, and longer and more insecure school-to-work transitions.
In addition, women are more likely to be underemployed and underpaid in harsh working conditions and to undertake part-time jobs or work under temporary contracts. That is why education and training are key determinants of success in the labor market.
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But unfortunately, existing systems are failing to address the learning needs of many young people, and surveys of learning outcomes and skills show that a large number of youth have low levels of achievement in basic literacy and numeracy.