World Youth Skills Day | 15 Jul 2020

Why in News

15th July is marked as World Youth Skills Day. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2014.

Key Points

  • Aim: To achieve better socio-economic conditions for today's youth in terms of challenges of unemployment and under-employment.
  • Theme for 2020: "Skills for a Resilient Youth".
    • According to UNGA, Covid-19 has led to the worldwide closure of training institutions, threatening the continuity of skills development.
    • Nearly 70% of the world’s youth are affected by school closures.
    • According to the Global Trends for Youth 2020 report, since 2017, there has been an upward trend in the number of youth not in employment, education or training (NEET).
    • Thus it has become important to impart relevant skills to the youth which can help them in the long run and successfully manage evolving challenges.
  • 2030 Agenda: Education and training are central to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
    • The vision of the Incheon Declaration: Education 2030 is fully captured by Sustainable Development Goal-4, which aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
    • Education 2030 devotes attention to technical and vocational skills development, acquisition of technical and vocational skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.
      • It also focuses on the elimination of gender disparity.
  • Skill India Mission: The day also marks the 5th anniversary of the launch of Skill India Mission.
    • Skill India is an initiative of the Government of India which has been launched to empower the youth of the country with skill sets which make them more employable and more productive in their work environment.
    • Skill India offers courses across several sectors which are aligned to the standards recognised by both, the industry and the government under the National Skill Qualification Framework.

Source: PIB