World Youth Skills Day

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 under-employment.

n 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.

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.