World Youth Skills Day
The World Youth Skills Day originated in The United Nations, at its General Assembly in November 2014, where they declared that 15th July will be a special day for the young population. The World Skills Day is part of a well-known global recognition and promotion of young people gaining skills, they believe that through the power of skills, individuals, communities, and countries are driven towards a more affluent future.
This particular day is very significant as it aims to encourage young people to develop the skills needed for their future careers, and to raise an awareness of how important education and training is to develop those skills.
A UN study states that adolescents are almost three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and are continuously exposed to a lower quality of jobs and more insecure school-to-work transitions. Therefore, it is vital to highlight the importance of young people developing their skills and they can do this by educating, training and practicing to make their skills and qualifications desirable for their future world of work. Many companies are looking for some new, great talents which will bring something completely new into the business, but also to provide more “hard skills” as some jobs are heavily reliant on technology and programming.
As technology evolves and advances, the workplace is demanding highly skilled workers who can match and keep pace with it. The Young Enterprise have made a survey to portray how 76% of young people are concerned that they will find it difficult to get jobs that a robot can do because they lack the skills to differentiate themselves, such as team working and problem solving. These kinds of soft skills are not entirely enough for the future world of innovations and this shows why The World Youth Skills day is so important, as it encourages young people to have an awareness that they need to train and practice their skills in order to help them in their workplace.
There are many ways in which schools can prepare their students for the future world of work, training and support are needed to develop their management and leadership skills and help them to effectively integrate. Workplaces are mainly focused on digital skills which are based on using digital tools for learning, communication and collaboration; and critical thinking and problem solving, which focuses on improving student self-directed thinking and learning to produce new and innovative ideas. British Council’s new 21st Century Schools programme is supporting schools across the Western Balkans to introduce innovative teaching methodology and help students build the essential skills needed for their future education and career. Those programmes are designed to give students entry level skills and confidence in computer literacy and coding in ICT classes, and other subjects, and then give them the opportunity to trial and test new products and services, such as apps and websites, from the British Council and other future partners like Micro: bit Education Foundation. Those particular skills will widen young people’s career options and provide them with an excellent future and a variety of opportunities.
As a sixth form student, I have attended two-week work experience in a company in order to gain a wider understanding on how business works but also what do I need to do to prepare me for my future world of work. Through work experience, I noticed that practice makes perfect and hard work will provide you with many opportunities. I have developed many different skills like IT through the work of Microsoft Word and Excel to produce a variety of tasks. Additionally, I have developed analytical and research skills which I worked through by doing researching for tasks and producing financial data. Not only I have improved my strong work ethic but also an ability to plan, organise and prioritise work by achieving deadlines and managing my tasks effectively. Work experience is not only a great chance to develop your personal skills needed for a future career, but it also gave me an insight of what it is like to work in a different environment and get to know new people which I didn’t know before. Furthermore, many employers require an employee who had previous work experience as it shows that you are motivated to work and you are committed to whatever you are passionate about.
World Youth Skills Day is compelling as it supports both youngsters and grown-ups to create opportunities for succeeding in their careers and in the business they work in. Hopefully, this blog will encourage all the awesome individuals out there who can create a better world for us young people to work in, to do so. I also hope it will encourage young people to work on their skills so they can make the most of their future.
You can read more about World Youth Skills Day by following the links below: