World Youth Skills Day – 15th July

World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) is observed on 15th July, to celebrate youth and their special skills. The day was declared by United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in November 2014, which highlights the importance of providing young people with the necessary skills for employment, the workplace, and entrepreneurship. The ultimate goal is to reduce youth unemployment across the globe.

WYSD provides an opportunity for Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, public and private sector stakeholders, and young people to acknowledge the importance of equipping them with skills for employment and entrepreneurship. So the governments worldwide are trying to empower youth with skills and employment opportunities.

The aim was also to encourage and empower young people to adapt to the changes and advancement of the current global demands; harness the support required for the empowerment of youth through the building of a resilient mindset and highlight the influence of cultural gender norms and their impact on career choices.

Since 2014, the day is observed to inspire and educate youth about the importance of Skills Education with a theme. The theme of the World Youth Skills Day 2023 is Skilling teachers, trainers and youth for a transformative future.

World Youth Skills Day 2022 takes place amid concerted efforts towards 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.

Observance of this day mainly focuses on activities that motivate young people towards learning skills and acquiring excellence with time; educating youth about future challenges and awareness as well as their readiness to work in highly competitive workplaces; training youth about survival skills during and post-COVID-19 era and creating awareness among the youth for their training in jobs of the next decade.

Skill India Mission

15th July 2022 marks the 7th anniversary of the launch of Skill India Mission launched to offer courses to the youngest to focus on enhancing the required skills and training based on their job profile. Skill India campaign was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 July 2015 to train over 40 crore people in India in different skills by 2022.

Objectives of Skill India mission:

• We are struggling with the academia-industry gap for years now. Though the number of colleges has mushroomed, students are not job-ready. They lack the skills that the workplace requires. The Skill India campaign aims to train over 40 crore people in different skills by 2022.

• The program not only wishes for employment but also strives to broaden the mindset of the youth. For actual progress, we need good entrepreneurs and scientists too.

• It also has provisions for the economic empowerment of the underprivileged youth such as skill loan schemes and aims to mitigate poverty.

• Through the Skill India mission, the government wants the youth to meet both local demand and rank well on a global scale. For this, we have entered into partnerships with foreign countries and global companies.

World Youth Skills Day quotes

• Some inspiring quotes to share with your friends and family on Youth Skills Day.

• Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent. – Eric Hoffer

• Studying and residing go hand in hand and the extra you be taught, the higher you reside.

• Skill is the unified force of experience, intellect, and passion in their operation.

• The world will never run out of things that you can take an interest in and develop some skills related to that.

• Your skills are the weapons that can help you in overcoming any difficult situation.

• Do not ever compare your skills with anybody else’s because all kinds of skills are useful in this world.

• Learning skills are undoubtedly helpful to us and we should keep learning as long as we live.

• There is no comparison among skills as all skills are useful.

• The good thing about being young is that you are not experienced enough to know you cannot possibly do the things you are doing.

• A skill can be anything and everything and we can try learning whatever skill we find interesting.

• What can be a better way to celebrate World youth skills day other than learning new skills?

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