World youth skills day celebrated around the world, encouraging youth to attain variety of skills for social recognition and help them to improve job opportunities. Training and education are the solutions to excel in the workforce.
July 15th declared as World Youth Skills Day by the Nations General Assembly, celebrating tactical importance of furnishing young individuals with skills for decent work, employment and entrepreneurship. “Skilling teachers, trainers and youth for a transformative future” was the theme for Worlds Youth Skills Day 2023. The day shed light on the importance that trainers, teachers and other educators perform in providing knowledge for youth to shift to the labour market and actively involve in their societies and communities.
An adaptable and flexible skill set is increasingly called for in a shifting labour market with technological advancement. It is vital that governments allow and assist young individuals to navigate these variations effectively. Technical and Vocational education and training (TVET) is well positioned to face these demands by minimizing access barriers to the work environment. Certifying that skills obtained are recognized, relevant and certified, encouraging practices and green skills, and contributing skills enhancement opportunities for youth who are not engaged in employment, education and training.
Regrettably, the current education systems are failing to address the learning needs of young individuals. Recent figures implies that 600 million job opportunities would have to be created over the next 15 years to furnish youth employment needs.
Presently there are 1.2 billion young individuals in the age range of 15 to 24 years, occupying 16% of the global population. It is estimated by 2030, the number of young individuals to have increased by 7 percent, to nearly 1.3 billion.
The total global figure of unemployed youth estimates in 2023 is a slight improvement from 2021 from 75 million to 72 million, however, above the pre – determined level in 2019 by six million, and the youth population between 2021 and 2030 will swell by more than 78 million, contributing more than half of this increase by the low-income countries. A response from education and training systems are needed to meet this challenge. By the 2030, an additional 8.4 million jobs could be created for youth by the execution Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), explained by the UN.
The active appointment of sustainable development efforts by youth is vital to attaining inclusive, sustainable and stable societies and preventing the pressures and challenges to sustainable development, including the influences of climate change, poverty, gender inequality, migration and conflict. However, youth unemployment is a significant concern facing societies and economies.
Survey suggests that both youth and employers consider that graduates are no prepared for the world of work, specially so in Sri Lanka, where graduates are following courses that have no relevance to the requirements demanded by the job market.
Young individuals are exposed to low quality jobs, longer and more insecure school – to – work transition and greater labour market inequalities, and are three times more likely to face unemployment than adults
One of the reasons for youth unemployment that effecting globally is the disparity between what the skilled workforce can offer and the demanded skills in the job market. This is commonly known as structural unemployment. From the thousands of jobs advertised, certain ads are repeated week after week, due to the employer’s inability to locate suitable job takers. People simply do not posses the particular set of skills that the employers require.
