World Youth Skill Day:
Every year, 15th July is observed as the World Youth Skills Day.
- It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2014.
- To equip young people around the world with essential skills for employment, work, and entrepreneurship.
- To achieve the Incheon Declaration: Education 2030, “which devotes considerable attention to technical and vocational skills development, specifically regarding access to affordable quality technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions.’’
- This vision is fully captured by Sustainable Development Goal-4, which aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
- To eliminate gender disparity.
- Theme for 2021:
- ‘Reimagining Youth Skills Post-Pandemic’.
State of Youth Employment and Schools during Covid-19:
- According to the estimates of UNESCO, schools were shut down for over 30 weeks in 50% of the countries between March 2020 and May 2021.
- Respondents to a survey of the TVET, which was jointly collected by UNESCO, the ILO and the World Bank, revealed that distance learning was the most common way of imparting skills.
- Youth employment fell 8.7% last year, compared with 3.7% for adults.