Get ready for World Youth Skills Day 2020

Get ready for World Youth Skills Day 2020

On the 15th of July, we celebrate Youth Skills Day, an event dedicated to the promotion of the importance of technical, vocational education, and training and the development of other skills relevant to both local and global economies.

Since when it was first declared by the UN General Assembly in 2014, the 15th of July is the day to celebrate World Youth Skills Day (WYSD).  This event serves as a reminder of the critical need for marketable skills. In fact, the precise aim of WYSD is to raise awareness on the strategic importance of giving young people the tools to develop skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship, and to highlight the crucial role of skilled youth in addressing current and future global challenges.

Especially during a time extraordinaire circumstances, such as the ones that COVID-19 forced us to deal with, it is important to remember the struggle that millions of young people have to face while entering the labour market. As the World is beginning to recover from this health and economic crisis, young people have the right to have access to the tools that will equip them to make their part during this recovery.

With the pandemic forcing the closure of technical and vocational education and training  institutions, long-distance training has become the new normal. However, this is far from enough to prevent the number of young people who are not in employment, education or training from growing and this is why celebrating the 2020 WYSD has become more important than ever.

EFDN Youth Exchange 

Contributing to the Sustainable Development Goal 4 “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, and aware of the fact that around the world millions of young people are kept out of work by a lack of skills, EFDN has launched the Youth Exchanges programme in 2015.  Through the participation of several clubs, these exchanges give groups of young people from different countries the chance to meet, live and work together on shared projects for short periods.

While taking participants out of their conventional environment, Youth Exchanges engage them in activities such as workshops, exercises, debates, role-plays, outdoor activities, and more. The aim is to promote the involvement of young people in their communities, and to discuss the potential invisible barriers in society.

Join us for the celebration of young people by using #WorldYouth SkillsDay and #MoreThanFootball. Have a look at the photos from our latest Youth Exchange hosted by NAC Breda in the Netherlands.