Why is World Youth Skills Day important?

• The United Nations observes World Youth Skills Day on July 15 to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.

• Under the theme ‘Skills for a shared future’, this year’s World Youth Skills Day activities spotlight the urgent need for innovative youth skills programmes.

Youth unemployment remains a major challenge

• The world of work is changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence, the green transition and growing social complexity are transforming how we learn, work and participate in society. 

• To thrive in this changing landscape, young people need more than technical skills alone. 

• They need a balanced set of competencies that combines technical, digital, AI, green, social-emotional and civic skills with the human qualities that technology cannot replace.

• Youth unemployment remains a major economic and social challenge worldwide. 

• According to the ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024, the global youth unemployment rate fell to 13 per cent in 2023 — a 15-year low and below the pre-pandemic level of 13.8 per cent. 

• However, recovery has been uneven. In the Arab States, East Asia, and South-East Asia, rates were higher in 2023 than in 2019. 

• Meanwhile, one in five young people globally — and over a quarter of young women — were NEET (not in employment, education, or training), with young women’s NEET rate (28.1 per cent) more than double that of young men (13.1 per cent).

• Even for those who work, decent jobs remain scarce. Over half of young workers are in informal employment, and in low-income countries, three in four hold only self-employment or temporary jobs.

• Investment in green and blue sectors could create 8.4 million youth jobs by 2030, but these must come with decent working conditions — including fundamental rights like equal pay, collective bargaining, and protection from harassment.

Key points:

• 40 per cent of today’s skillsets no longer match job market needs.

• 65 million youth were unemployed globally in 2023.

• 22 per cent of jobs will transform by 2030 due to technological disruption.

• Fewer than 1 per cent of poor rural women complete secondary school in many countries.

• 22 per cent of jobs will transform by 2030 due to technological disruption.

• 86 per cent of students do not feel prepared for an AI enabled workplace.

• 70 per cent of youth (450 million) are economically disengaged due to lack of adequate skills for the labour market.