UNESCO-UNEVOC follows the United Nations’ stride in celebrating World Youth Skills Day every year on 15th July, and continues to call for increased prospects for the youth to gain access to quality training and skills development through TVET, globally.
Productive participation in the current and emerging dynamic labour markets has placed a unique focus on TVET as a critical source of responsively skilled human capital. Employment trends and outlooks signify that the youth of today need to have functional competencies as well as higher order transversal skills that enable them to respond to continuing changes in the world of work.
Amid a growing consensus in support of TVET’s potential to grapple with these challenges, a recurring issue has been its relative unattractiveness vis‐à‐vis an academic education for students.
We wish to thank everyone who joined UNESCO-UNEVOC in celebrating World Youth Skills Day 2018, in its call for "Improving the Image of TVET" and building a shared understanding of its true prospects.
As part of this year’s WYSD observance, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre organized:
World Youth Skills Day was also celebrated across the UNEVOC Network. The map below shows some examples of activities carried out by UNEVOC Centres:
A virtual conference entitled “Improving the image of TVET: Making TVET attractive to youth” was held from 13-25 July 2018 which tackled and discussed issues on how to improve the image of TVET among young people. The report will be published soon.
Click here to read more.
World Youth Skills Day poster
Download and print the poster to raise awareness about World Youth Skills Day in your area!
World Youth Skills Day Infographic
Why skilling up youth is important. Essentials on one page. A new infographic is currently being developed.
Downloadable materials for UNEVOC Network Members
Click here to access the files from the Network Page, only accessible for UNEVOC Network members.
World Youth Skills Day became an official (UN Day) in 2015 and raises awareness about the importance of youth skills development. The need to campaign and promote World Youth Skills Day is more important than ever before. Despite the youth employment rate increasing yearly, the number of young people without a job remains over 10 per cent in many countries (OECD, 2016). Perhaps more alarming, the number of young people out-of-school and not in education, employment and training (NEETs) is increasing. At the same time, young people are also faced with the question of how they will address their country’s current and future challenges. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for a shift towards more sustainable and equitable economies and societies, which will no doubt result in changes in the world of work and education.
Mr Shyamal Majumdar, Head of UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre, explains what is World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) in a video made in 2017. The video is available in:
The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre specializes in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). It assists UNESCO's member states to strengthen and upgrade their TVET systems with programmes and policies that are relevant, lifelong and accessible to all. Our aim is to promote learning for the world of work. We focus on three priority areas: youth employment and entrepreneurship, equity and gender equality, and the transition to green economies and sustainable societies.