UNESCO | World Youth Skills Day 2021: Reimagining Youth Skills Post-Pandemic

History: 15^th July is declared as World’s Youth Skills Day by The United Nations General Assembly in 2014 to celebrate the primacy to furnish the youth of the world with the skills and training required for employment and development. This day also put a spotlight on the youth’s skills that contribute to label current and future challenges globally.

The Skill India Mission was also embarked on this day that aims to train about 40 crores Indian youth at vocational training and certification by 2022 for their progressive and better living.

Source: unesco

Main facts of World’s Youth Skills Day 2020:

• 1 in every 5 people around the world are NEET( Not in Employment, Education and Training) and surprisingly 3 out of 4 young NEET’s are women.

• The young population of the world has grown about 138 million between 1997 and 2017 and the youth work power population has declined to 58.6 million.

• Out of 2 in every 5 youth workers in the developing economy earns less than $3.10 per day as their livelihood.

• Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, 1 out of 6 youth people today is unemployed. Before the pandemic, this possibility was 3 times higher in adults.

• Technical and Vocational Education and Training(TVET) has been proved fruitful in distance learning along with heuristic skills development for more than 100 years.

Wold’s Youth Skills day 2021- Theme & Event:

The theme for this year is “ Reimagining Youth Skills Post-pandemic “. According to the UNESCO survey, the shutdown of schools and colleges worldwide due to the pandemic has affected more than 70% of the world’s youth. Nearly half of the young population is out of work these days. Therefore, in such difficult times youth are to be well-furnished with the technical and vocational skills to recover from the drowning economy.

UNESCO reports suggest that Distance Learning is the only option left through which skills and pieces of training can be conveyed to the youth along with curriculum adaptation, forming bridges between trainees and trainers, evaluation and certification process.

It is important to furnish youth with the skills so they can retaliate these difficult times and future challenges.

Source: unesco

Event: The Permanent Missions of Sri Lanka and Portugal to the UN, the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, UNESCO, and ILO has organised a virtual event where the UN Member States, TVET institutions, working companies, private sectors and young people will be brought together to discuss the possibilities that can enhance the skills and training essential for current and future living.

Also, this event aims to applause the flexibility and creativity adapted by the young generation throughout this pandemic. How they have accommodated online Technical and Vocational Education and Training systems and how they can contribute to the recovery post-pandemic.

The Objectives of the Event:

• To estimate the status of the youth concerning the skills and work throughout the pandemic and post-pandemic.

• To point up the stories of the success and flexibility of the youth in the pandemic.

• To contemplate how TVET institutions and collaborators can team up to upgrade skill development and help in resolving interim economical conditions.

• To find out ways that can contribute to the long-term economical recovery.

• To debate on the plans, prospects and support from the development partners in the functionality of skills development and the world of work.

Moreover, a new framework called “Global Framework on Core Skills for Life and Work in the 21^st Century” will be also be launched. This publication acknowledges the International Labour Organisation(ILO’s) contribution in encouraging occupational and individual development through long-term learning for all.

Source: unesco

Improvement in TVET for youth in skills development:

The parent policy of TVET is to impart heuristic skills and work preparedness that can indulge youth in work and labour. Technical and Vocational Education and Training have the power to boost up the employment, producibility and living status in the developing countries. But due to the current crisis, a bit of improvement is required in TVET such as:

1. TVET can gratify those students who dropped out from schools and colleges due to the closure worldwide and became unemployed by upskilling them with digital and socio-economic skills.
2. To reskill the youth with emerging skills, TVET needs to tackle the drawbacks preceding in the systems and institutions and focus more upon the innovations and remedies to recover fast.
3. On top of everything, TVET lapses to magnetize female students, specifically in the field of Science and Technology. Improving this loophole will curtail gender exclusion mostly in the working space.
4. TVET needs to build provisions for the opportunity for low-skilled people such as school dropout youth, people who are unemployed or under-employment and for NEETs( Not in Education, Employment and Training).
5. TVET should help to equip students with self-employment.

Post-Covid Skills required in the era of work:

Soft Skills:

1. Adaptability to digitalization: An year of this pandemic has replaced face-to-face meetings with virtual workflow. Thus this whole scenario requires digital knowledge and adaptability towards digitalization.
   
   
2. Communication: The long-term isolation has resulted in a decline in the ability of people to communicate with each other and this skill needs to be improved post-pandemic.
   
   
3. Emotional Intelligence and Resilience: The ability to move on despite the hardships and difficulties of the situation is considered emotional intelligence. Pandemic has altered everyone emotionally to a great extent and this needs to be addressed.
   
   
4. Critical Thinking: We are living in an era where a lie is much cheaper than the truth. Every day we are exposed to so much fake news and false data, it is important to nourish critical thinking in the youth so that they can think clearly and critically and digging out the truths behind the lie.
   
   
5. Innovation and creativity: Digitalisation has taken the place of human’ basic skills but yet humans are much more than this. Their brains are built in such a way that they can think out of the box in no time and can create something unique. Thus creativity and innovation hold a great place in skill development.

 Technological Skills:

1. Artificial Intelligence
2. Machine  Learning
3. Cloud Computing
4. Internet of Things
5. Data Science
6. Cybersecurity
7. Digital Marketing

Conclusion: World’s Youth Skills Day 2021 aims at enhancing the skills and training of the youth that can give them a chance to live normally in the post-pandemic situation. Moreover, schools and colleges should initiate to provide chances to the students which can connect them with real-life skills. After all, the youth is the future of the world and sooner or later they have to face the real world. I have tried to mention the most required skills post-pandemic. Give your views and suggests some more skills you think should be addressed.