World Youth Skills Day 2023: Date, Theme, Significance and History: Since 2014, the United Nations has commemorated World Youth Skills Day on July 15th, with the goal of recognising the importance of providing young people with the required skills for employment, decent labour, and entrepreneurship. With the continuous progress of technology and changes in the labor market, it is essential to equip young people with adaptable and flexible skill sets.
Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) plays a critical role in meeting these needs by lowering barriers to employment, ensuring the relevance and certification of acquired skills, promoting environmentally friendly skills and practises, and providing skill development opportunities for youth who are not engaged in education, employment, or training.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023
Theme of World Youth Skills Day 2023
The theme for World Youth Skills Day 2023 is Skilling teachers, trainers and youth for a transformative future. It highlights the essential role that teachers, trainers and other educators play in providing skills for youth to transition to the labour market and to actively engage in their communities and societies.
Why is World Youth Skills Day important?
In 2014, the United Nations General Assembly declared 15 July as World Youth Skills Day, to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship. Since then, World Youth Skills Day events have provided a unique chance for young people, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, enterprises, employers’ and workers’ organisations, policymakers, and development partners to interact. Participants have highlighted the ever-increasing significance of skills as the world is embarking on a transition towards a sustainable model of development.
History of World Youth Skills Day
During the aftermath of the Second World War, the United Nations was founded on October 24, 1945, after its Charter was ratified by China, France, the U.S.S.R., the U.K., and the United States, along with other signatories. The organization’s mission has always been to maintain world peace and security, to provide humanitarian assistance, to defend human rights, and to respect international law. It was created as a successor to the League of Nations that disintegrated prior to the Second World War.
Over its years of functioning, the United Nations has been an active part of the global polity. It has modified its functioning with changes in international relations: in the face of decolonization of the Global South, the end of the Cold War, the rise of the U.S. as a hegemon, climate change, refugee crises, etc. Today, the U.N. works to attain its 17 sustainable development goals.
The United Nations declared World Youth Skills Day in 2014. The goal of this day was to throw some light on the necessary skills for young people’s employment and entrepreneurship, as well as their strategic importance for the future. This day is a unique opportunity for policy partners, employers, development partners, and vocational and training educational programs to dialogue with young people about the skills needed as the world transitions into a sustainable development model.
