Reimagining Youth Skills for a New Era-by Lal Hewapathirana
Source:Dailynews
Skills development entails developing one’s own self, so that it helps to add value, firstly for one’s own career development and secondly for the organisation for which he or she works. On the other hand, the career development of employees in any organisation both directly and indirectly helps the organisation in various ways to achieve its stipulated aims and objectives with greater efficiency. Thus, they are interrelated. Developing one’s skills commences with the assessment of which particular skills are desired for the pursuance of the career of one’s choice.
On December 18, 2014, Sri Lanka, with the assistance of the G77 and China, initiated the adoption of resolution A/RES/69/145 by the General Assembly of the United Nations, to foster ‘the acquisition of skills by youth to enhance their ability to make informed choices with regard to life and work, and to empower them to gain access to changing labour markets’. The General Assembly also decided to recognise July 15 of each year as the World Youth Skills Day (WYSD), in order to generate greater awareness and discussion among the global community, on the importance of technical and vocational education, as well as training and the development of other skills in the context of the young people.
Such recognition was also expected to contribute to reducing unemployment and underemployment among the youth across the globe, while highlighting the critical need for marketable skills. The UN system in New York and Colombo were solidly behind the implementation of this resolution, with UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Youth, Ahmad Alhendawi, and his staff fully supporting Sri Lanka’s initiative. The initiative was hailed globally, because there are more youth on the planet now than ever before and these young people are poised with all the potential and energy to be our next generation of leaders, workers and parents.
Accordingly, the first ever WYSD was celebrated by the UN, organising several events leading to a broad spread of activities and initiatives at the UN Headquarters in Bonn (Germany), New York (USA), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and elsewhere in the world, including Sri Lanka. They were aimed at raising the profile and recognition of skilled people, and showing how important skills are in achieving economic growth and personal success by inspiring, educating and developing youth.
Unemployed youth
WYSD is being celebrated across the world this year too, with much greater dynamism even amidst the pandemic, as recent data collected by the ILO and FAO observe that ‘youth represent 25 percent of the total working age population but make up 40 percent of the unemployed, while the youth unemployment situation is common to all regions in the world and is happening despite improvements in average educational attainment.’ According to the ILO, young people are almost three times more likely to be unemployed than adults. Young people aged 15–24 have been even more severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis than adults. Globally, youth employment fell by 8.7 percent in 2020, compared with 3.7 percent for adults.
One in five youths, or 125 million, is working, but live in extreme poverty (on less than US$ 1/day). Thus, the issue of youth unemployment, which is a major concern for both industrialised and developing countries, has prompted all countries to address the WYSD with unprecedented seriousness.
depth, the definition of skills development. The ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic and sustained effort to smoothly and adaptively carry out complex activities or job functions involving ideas, things and people are defined as skills development. Here the ability and capacity relating to ‘ideas’ denote cognitive skills, ‘things’ denote technical skills and ‘people’ indicate interpersonal skills. Skills can also be broadly classified into two formats: soft skills and hard skills. Soft skills relate to a high level of emotional intelligence such as good manners, optimism, common sense, sense of humour and empathy among several others. Hard skills include technical capacity, ability to perform specific tasks, knowledge and ability to foresee the outcomes, and such other attributes. It is often said that one needs hard skills to be called for an interview, but needs soft skills to get through the interview and to keep the job, which prompts that one is not less important than the other.
Skills development
Education and training are central to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. The vision of the Incheon Declaration: Education 2030 is fully captured by Sustainable Development Goal 4 – “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Education 2030 devotes considerable attention to technical and vocational skills development, specifically regarding access to affordable quality Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET); the acquisition of technical and vocational skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship; the elimination of gender disparity and ensuring access for the vulnerable. In this context, TVET is expected to address the multiple demands of an economic, social and environmental nature by helping youth and adults to develop the skills they need for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship, promoting equitable, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and supporting transitions to green economies and environmental sustainability.
TVET can equip youth with the skills required to access the world of work, including skills for self-employment. TVET can also improve responsiveness to changing skill demands by companies and communities, and increase productivity as well as wage levels. TVET can reduce access barriers to the world of work, for example through work-based learning, and ensuring that skills gained are recognised and certified. TVET can also offer skills development opportunities for low-skilled people who are under- or unemployed, out of school youth and individuals not in education, employment and training (NEETs).
Researchers have indicated a theory for skills development, which is called ‘70-20-10 Rule’. According to this theory, 70 percent of one’s skills development should come from on-the-job learning; 20 percent comes through interactions with others; and the remaining 10 percent by way of training.
Once a prospective job seeker identifies the skills he/she needs to realise his/her career goals, the next step is to proceed to achieve the development of such skills. But, unfortunately, the current trend is that most young people seek high flying jobs with luxury salaries, equipped with hardly any skills to perform the job targeted for them. They use influence and get the job somehow, but when they fail in the performance of the tasks assigned, they get the sack, thus adding frustration and vengeance to their character and blaming the society and the government in power. It is not yet too late for them to realise that the job market is extremely competitive and the youth are exceptionally talented. It is, therefore, not easy for anybody today to fetch a decent job, unless they are well equipped with excellent skills that are relevant. The days, when a mere academic certificate – even with a university degree – took pride of place, are long gone.
Such a situation brings to mind what the famous Austrian Physician Sigmund Freud (1865-1939) said over 50 years ago.
“With the passage of years of our life, the world also moves forward at double speed, with new challenges emerging against us. If we are not adequately skilled to confront them, we shall be doomed, for which we cannot blame anybody else, but our own-self.”
World Youth Skills Day 2021 will again take place in a challenging context due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
UNESCO estimates that schools were either fully or partially closed for more than 30 weeks between March 2020 and May 2021 in half the countries of the world. In late June, 19 countries still had full school closures, affecting nearly 157 million learners. And 768 million more learners were affected by partial school closures.
Respondents to a survey of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions jointly collected by UNESCO, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank reported that distance training had become the most common way of imparting skills, with considerable difficulties regarding, among others, curricula adaptation, trainee and trainer preparedness, connectivity, or assessment and certification processes.
The ILO estimates show that globally, youth employment fell 8.7 percent in 2020, compared with 3.7 percent for adults, with the most pronounced fall seen in middle-income countries. The consequences of this disruption to the early labour market experiences of youth could last for years.
World Youth Skills Day 2021 will pay tribute to the resilience and creativity of youth through the crisis. Participants will take stock of how TVET systems have adapted to the pandemic and recession, think of how those systems can participate in the recovery, and imagine priorities they should adopt for the post-COVID-19-world.
