World Youth Skills Day

Monday July 15^th is World Youth Skills Day. Education is highlighted in Goal 4 “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Surveys that have been conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development show that young people, regardless of whether they are graduates or not, are poorly equipped for the working environment. Securing a job is therefore difficult and youth unemployment is increasing across the globe.

We need to support our young people to gain the skills they need. Not only to perform the tasks that are expected of them at work but also how to behave at work. Otherwise this situation is only going to escalate. Not only will we have high unemployment but employers will be left with limited pools of candidates to choose from due to the lack of technical and vocational skills. One way to address this is through apprenticeships. If supported effectively by employers and training providers, work-based learning through apprenticeships can enable individuals to acquire new skills and gain a qualification giving them the competences needed to enter full-time employment. This sounds like hard work. Why employ a young person without experience? Robert Kennedy assists us when he said:

“This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease”

In our next blog we will be looking at:

• the advantages of having apprenticeships in the workplace; and
• how to make them work.

For any assistance with Employment and HR please get in touch. [contact-details]