World Youth Skills Day

Theme: “Reimagining Youth Skills Post Pandemic”

Context:

On the World Youth Skills Day, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) celebrated the fourth anniversary of the Skill India Mission.

About World Youth Skills Day:

• In December 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring 15th July as World Youth Skills Day.
• The goal is to achieve better socio-economic conditions for today’s youth as a means of addressing the challenges of unemployment and under employment.
• World youth skills day 2021: World Youth Skills Day 2021 will again take place in a challenging context due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

• UNESCO estimates that schools were either fully or partially closed for more than 30 weeks between March 2020 and May 2021 in half the countries of the world. In late June, 19 countries still had full school closures, affecting nearly 157 million learners. And 768 million more learners were affected by partial school closures.
• Respondents to a survey of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions jointly collected by UNESCO, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank reported that distance training had become the most common way of imparting skills, with considerable difficulties regarding, among others, curricula adaptation, trainee and trainer preparedness, connectivity, or assessment and certification processes.
• ILO estimates show that globally, youth employment fell 8.7 per cent in 2020, compared with 3.7 per cent for adults, with the most pronounced fall seen in middle-income countries. The consequences of this disruption to the early labour market experiences of youth could last for years.

World Youth Skills Day 2021 will pay tribute to the resilience and creativity of youth through the crisis. Participants will take stock of how TVET systems have adapted to the pandemic and recession, think of how those systems can participate in the recovery, and imagine priorities they should adopt for the post-COVID-19-world.

Role of technical and vocational education and training (TVET)

• Education and training are central to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. The vision of the Incheon Declaration: Education 2030 is fully captured by Sustainable Development Goal 4 “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Education 2030 devotes considerable attention to technical and vocational skills development, specifically regarding access to affordable quality Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET); the acquisition of technical and vocational skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship; the elimination of gender disparity and ensuring access for the vulnerable. In this context, TVET is expected to address the multiple demands of an economic, social and environmental nature by helping youth and adults develop the skills they need for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship, promoting equitable, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and supporting transitions to green economies and environmental sustainability.
• TVET can equip youth with the skills required to access the world of work, including skills for self-employment. TVET can also improve responsiveness to changing skill-demands by companies and communities, increase productivity and increase wage levels. TVET can reduce access barriers to the world of work, for example through work-based learning, and ensuring that skills gained are recognised and certified. TVET can also offer skills development opportunities for low-skilled people who are under- or unemployed, out of school youth and individuals not in education, employment and training (NEETs).

Skill India Mission

• Launched in the year 2015, it is an initiative of the Government of India to empower the youth of the country with skill sets which make them more employable and more productive in their work environment.

National Youth Policy

• The National Youth Policy, 2014 (NYP-2014) seeks to define the Vision of the Government of India for the Youth of the Country and identify the key areas in which action is required, where not enough is being done, to enable youth development and to provide a framework for action for all stakeholders.
• It is intended to serve as a guiding document, and should be reviewed in 5 years, so that GoI may re-focus its priorities for youth development, as may be necessary.
• NYP-2014 provides a holistic Vision for the youth of India which is “to empower the youthof the country to achieve their full potential, and through them enable India to find its rightful place in the community of nations”.
• In order to achieve this Vision, all stakeholders must work towards meeting 5 key objectives. This requires specific action in one or more of 11 priority areas, identified as important for youth development.

National Skill development mission

• The National Skill Development Mission was approved by the Union Cabinet on 2015, and officially launched on 15.07.2015 on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day.
• The Mission has been developed to create convergence across sectors and States in terms of skill training activities.
• Further, to achieve the vision of ‘Skilled India’, the National Skill Development Mission would not only consolidate and coordinate skilling efforts, but also expedite decision making across sectors to achieve skilling at scale with speed and standards.
• It will be implemented through a streamlined institutional mechanism driven by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
• Key institutional mechanisms for achieving the objectives of the Mission have been divided into three tiers, which will consist of a Governing Council for policy guidance at apex level, a Steering Committee and a Mission Directorate (along with an Executive Committee) as the executive arm of the Mission.
• Mission Directorate will be supported by three other institutions: National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), and Directorate General of Training (DGT) – all of which will have horizontal linkages with Mission Directorate to facilitate smooth functioning of the national institutional mechanism. Seven sub-missions have been proposed initially to act as building blocks for achieving overall objectives of the Mission. They are: (i)Institutional Training, (ii) Infrastructure, (iii) Convergence, (iv) Trainers, (v) Overseas Employment, (vi) Sustainable Livelihoods, (vii) Leveraging Public Infrastructure.

World Youth Skills Day: Significance

Youth unemployment is increasing which is the most significant problem facing today’s economies and societies in the world for developed and developing countries alike. According to the latest Global Trends for Youth 2020: technology and the future of jobs, since 2017, there has been an upward trend in the number of youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET).

Around 259 million young people in 2016 were classified as NEET and this number rose to an estimated 267 million in 2019 and it is said it will rise to around 273 million in 2021. In terms of percentage, the trend is slightly up from 21.7% in 2015 to 22.4% in 2020 and implying that the international target to reduce the NEET rate by 2020 will be missed. 

In 2014, the General Assembly declared to celebrate the World Youth Skills Day on 15 July with an aim to provide a chance for young youth, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, public and private sector stakeholders to recognise and celebrate the importance of preparing young youth with skills of employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship.

Source: PIB

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