On 15 July 2019, UNESCO and the UNEVOC Network will join the global celebrations to mark World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) and raise awareness about the importance of youth skills development!
The celebration will be observed under the theme, “Learning to learn for life and work”.
Young people are almost 3 times more likely to be unemployed than adults (UN) and continuously face the challenges of greater labour market inequalities. The aim of WYSD is to advocate for skills as an important factor to improve young people’s transitions to decent work, and to highlight the crucial role of skilled youth in addressing today’s most challenging global issues.
This World Youth Skills Day lets us emphasise the importance of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in providing youth with the opportunities to develop their competencies and accelerate their transition to work.
About the World Youth Skills Day
WorldSkills International is very proud to be part of a global recognition and promotion of World Youth Skills Day. The United Nations, at its General Assembly in November 2014, declared 15 July as World Youth Skills Day.
The UN designated day seeks to generate greater awareness of and discussion on the importance of technical, vocational education, and training and the development of other skills relevant to both local and global economies. It is hoped that it will contribute to reducing unemployment and underemployment among the youth across the globe. It will highlight youth skills development to draw attention to the critical need for marketable skills. WorldSkills will support this globally important topic via the broad spread of activities and initiatives in our six focus areas all aimed at raising the profile and recognition of skilled people and showing how important skills are in achieving economic growth and personal success. Inspiring, educating, and developing youth is an integral part of this.
On 18 December 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus, a resolution, spearheaded by Sri Lanka, declaring 15 July as the World Youth Skills Day. Sri Lanka initiated this resolution, with the assistance of the G77 & China, to highlight at a global level, the importance of youth skills development. The goal is to achieve better socio-economic conditions for today’s youth, including as a means of addressing the challenges of unemployment and underemployment. The UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Youth, Ahmed Alhendawi, and his office supported this initiative from the early days, while the UN system in New York and Colombo were solidly behind it.
Since it was first suggested in the Strategy Committee, WorldSkills International has pursued a World Skills Day but, once connections were made with the UN in New York, WorldSkills International fully supported the proposal of Sri Lanka for a World Skills Youth Day.
To raise awareness about WYSD, a number of events are being staged at the UN Headquarters in New York including an exhibit entitled “Inspiring youth and improving perception for skills”, a panel discussion based on the theme “Learning to learn for life and work”.
In addition, UNEVOC centres (GNTA and TAMCC in Grenada) are being encouraged to host photo competitions and “Inspiring Youth in TVET” Story Series.
The Grenada National Training Agency (GNTA) joins with the rest of the world in observing the UNESCO/UNEVOC World Youth Skills Day on Monday, 15 July 2019.
The GNTA will mark the day with a radio/television interview on GBN’s Mid-Morning Buzz in which young persons skilled in Culinary Arts, Information Technology and Fashion Design will participate.
GNTA
