WORLD YOUTH SKILLS DAY 2021: HISTORY, SIGNIFICANCE AND ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
WHY IN NEWS?
- Every year, 15th July is observed as the World Youth Skills Day.
- It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2014.
IN DEPTH:
- To equip young people around the world with essential skills for employment, work, and entrepreneurship.
- To achieve the Incheon Declaration: Education 2030, “which devotes considerable attention to technical and vocational skills development, specifically regarding access to affordable quality technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions.’’
- This vision is fully captured by Sustainable Development Goal-4, which aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
- To eliminate gender disparity.
Theme for 2021
- ‘Reimagining Youth Skills Post-Pandemic’.
- State of Youth Employment and Schools during Covid-19:
- According to the estimates of UNESCO, schools were shut down for over 30 weeks in 50% of the countries between March 2020 and May 2021.
- Respondents to a survey of the TVET, which was jointly collected by UNESCO, the ILO and the World Bank, revealed that distance learning was the most common way of imparting skills.
- Youth employment fell 8.7% last year, compared with 3.7% for adults.
Announcement by India:
- The Prime Minister announced the 75 newly sanctioned Jan Shikshan Sansthans ((JJSs) and also launched a portal made specifically for JSS.
- JSSs aim to provide vocational training to non-literates, neo-literates as well as school dropouts in rural areas, by identifying skills that might be relevant to the market of that region.
- Curriculum was launched of 57 new courses aligned with industry demand.
Steps taken by India for Skilling Youth
- Industrial Training Centres (ITIs): Conceptualized in the year 1950, aims to expand and modernize the existing Long-Term Training ecosystem in India.
- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY): Launched in 2015, it aims to provide free skill training avenues to youths of India.
- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 3.0: It is launched 2021 in a bid to empower India’s youth with employable skills by making over 300 skill courses available to them.
- Recognition of Prior Learning: It was launched in 2015 to recognize the prior skills acquired by individuals. It is one of the key components of PMKVY.
- Under this an individual with a certain set of skills or with prior learning experience is assessed and certified under RPL with grade according to the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF).
- National Career Service Project: Launched in 2015 to offer free online career skills training through its National Career Service (NCS) project for job-seekers registered with it.
- National Career Service is a Five Year Mission Mode Project launched on 20th July, 2015.
- The project is being implemented by the Directorate General of Employment, Ministry of Labour & Employment.
- National Career Service (NCS) is a one-stop solution that provides a wide array of employment and career related services to the citizens of India.
- It works towards bridging the gap between jobseekers and employers, candidates seeking training and career guidance, agencies providing training and career counselling.
- Skill Management and Accreditation of Training Centres (SMART): It provides a single window IT application that focuses on the accreditation, grading, Affiliation and Continuous monitoring of the Training Centres (TC) in the skill ecosystem.
- Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood (SANKALP): Its focus is on district-level skilling ecosystem through convergence and coordination. It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme which is collaborated with the World Bank.
- Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement: STRIVE scheme is a World Bank Assisted-Government of India project with the objective of improving the relevance and efficiency of skills training provided through ITIs and apprenticeships.
- Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS): The scheme is to provide industry apprenticeship opportunities to the general graduates exiting in April 2019 through the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS).
- Atmanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping (ASEEM): Launched in 2020, it is a portal to help skilled people find sustainable livelihood opportunities.
Special Initiatives for Tribal Community
- ‘Going Online As Leaders’ -GOAL are helping tribal population with areas like art and culture, handicraft, textiles and digital literacy among tribal areas leading to entrepreneurship development among the tribal population.
- Similarly, Van Dhan Yojna is effectively connecting the tribal society with new opportunities.