World Youth Skills Day is celebrated on July 15 every year.

According to the United Nations, 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 has provided a unique opportunity for dialogue between young people, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, firms, employers’ and workers’ organisations, policy-makers and development partners.

World Youth Skills Day 2022 takes place amid concerted efforts toward socio-economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that are interconnected with challenges such as climate change, conflict, persisting poverty, rising inequality, rapid technological change, demographic transition, and others.

The United Nations and its agencies,  such as UNESCO-UNEVOC, are well placed to help address these challenges by reducing access barriers to the world of work, ensuring that skills gained are recognized and certified, and offering skills development opportunities for out-of-school youth and those not in employment, education or training (NEET). During this Decade of Action for the 2030 Agenda, the full engagement of young people in global processes is vital to generate positive change and innovation.

THE THEME FOR THIS YEAR IS  TRANSFORMING YOUTH SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE

The celebrations of World Youth Skills Day 2022 will highlight the ongoing focus on the Transforming Education Summit (September 2022), and contribute to the work being done under its Thematic Action Track “Learning and skills for life, work, and sustainable development”. The summit is a youth-inspired global event of major importance for the future of millions of young people; it is prepared by, with and for youth.

The “Transforming youth skills for the future” global event is being co-organized by the Permanent Missions of Portugal and Sri Lanka to the United Nations, together with UNESCO, ILO and the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth. It will bring together youth, governments, UN agencies, private sector and civil society representatives to analyse the impact of current crises on youth across the world, and discuss how young people can quickly adapt to the demands of an ever-changing world.