World Youth Skills Day 2021: Theme, Significance, History – All you need to know

Every year, July 15 is observed as the World Youth Skills Day to celebrate the strategic importance of skills of entrepreneurship, decent work, and employment in young people.

The day offers an opportunity for dialogue between young people and educational institutions, organizations, firms, policymakers.

The day highlights the increasing significance of equipping young people with technical and vocational skills for entrepreneurship, decent work, and employment in an ever-changing world.

World Youth Skills Day 2021: Theme

• Reimagining Youth Skills Post Pandemic is the theme of World Youth Skills Day 2021.  

• World Youth Skills Day 2021 will be observed in a challenging time amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the day will be observed to pay tribute to the creativity and resilience of youth during the pandemic. The day will investigate how Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) systems have evolved during the pandemic, how these systems can aid in recovery post-COVID-19.

• As per UNESCO, schools were shut for more than 30 weeks during March 2020 and May 2021 that affected approximately 157 million learners. Partial closure of schools affected approximately 768 million learners.

• Further, in a survey of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions conducted jointly by UNESCO, the World Bank, and the International Labour Organization (ILO), it was found that distance learning had emerged as the most common way of imparting skills.

• The International Labour Organization (ILO) further estimated that youth employment fell 8.7 per cent in 2020.

World Youth Skills Day: Significance

• The World Youth Skills Day highlights the strategic importance of technical, vocational education and training, and skills of entrepreneurship, decent work, and employment in young people. 

• Training and education play a crucial role in achieving Education 2030 under Sustainable Development Goal 4 that states “Ensure inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

• Education 2030 focuses on technical and vocational skills development, access to technical and vocational education and training (TVET), acquiring technical and vocational skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship, and ensuring access for the vulnerable and elimination of gender disparity.

• Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) can aid youth in acquiring skills required for self-employment, improving responsiveness to ever-changing skill demands by companies, increasing wage levels, and offering opportunities for skills development to low-skilled people who are unemployed, or out of school.

World Youth Skills Day: History

• The United Nations General Assembly in 2014 had declared July 15 as World Youth Skills Day to celebrate the strategic importance of skills of entrepreneurship, decent work, and employment in young people.

• Since then, the day offers an opportunity of dialogue between young people and educational institutions, organizations, firms, policymakers.