July 15^th, 2019 marks the World Youth Skills Day, a day where up to 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 years old raise awareness about the significance of youth skills development. Young people represent around 16% of the total global population so it seems almost necessary to celebrate this special day for them.

Traditionally organised by Portugal, Sri Lanka, UNESCO, ILO and the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, the day officially signifies the importance of actively engaging youth in sustainable development. The notion is tied well with the UN goals presented in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Challenges faced when achieving sustainability include poverty, gender inequality, unemployment and conflict. Young people are sometimes exploited in the workforce as a result of lack of sufficient skills or lack of proper training among other reasons. These can greatly contribute to the ever-growing percentages of talent shortages across the job market.

Education and training are one of the central goals for the 2030 Agenda where considerable care is placed for the improvement and development of technical and vocational skills. Therefore, the World Youth Skills Day examines ways of youth empowerment in academics with special attention to an array of subjects- the sciences being one of them. For the healthcare sector, much consideration will be administered on this day to ensure that adequate skills and hands-on experience for both doctors and students are given. Due to the increasing interest in quality care, medical and healthcare organisations are actively trying to restructure their medical education system in hopes of improving medical training programmes.

For this year’s World Youth Skills Day, the UN issued a theme that will shed light on the mechanisms needed to operationalise lifelong learning. UN officials encourage participants to host their own events, voice their thoughts on different social platforms or take part in ongoing activities to help support the cause.

References: 

1. World Youth Skills Day, 2019, UN 
2. World Youth Skills Day, 2019, UNESCO-UNEV 
3. World Youth Skills Day – Quotes from the who’s who of healthcare ecosystem, 2016, EHealth