World Youth Skills Day 15th July 2024

Thursday, 11 July 2024

World Youth Skills Day, celebrated annually on 15^th July, is a global event dedicated to highlighting the importance of equipping young people with the skills needed for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship. Established by the United Nations in 2014, World Youth Skills Day aims to raise awareness about the critical role skills development plays in the lives of youth and in the broader context of economic and social growth. With an ever-evolving job market, the need for adaptable and skilled individuals has never been more pressing.

The theme for World Youth Skills Day often varies each year, focusing on various aspects of skill development and the challenges faced by young people. These themes underscore the necessity of integrating Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) into educational systems worldwide. TVET offers young people a pathway to gain practical skills and knowledge that are directly applicable to the workforce. The theme for World Youth Skills Day 2024 is Youth Skills for Peace and Development. It highlights the crucial role that young people play in peacebuilding and conflict resolution efforts.

Young people may lack experience, both of specific types of work and of the culture of the workplace, but they have the potential to bring other qualities to a business. The business case for employing a young person is not just about immediate benefits, it is more about the return that employers can receive from a longer-term investment in their workforce. The range of benefits include:

Lower recruitment costs – engaging with schools and colleges can also help attract good quality recruits by building a reputation that encourages young people to apply and thus widening the pool of applicants and reducing advertising costs.
Cost effectiveness – wage costs of younger workers may initially be less than older workers before rising based on experience, qualifications, and performance.
Flexibility – young people can be flexible in terms of the hours they work and are more willing to move and work in various locations. Moreover, psychologically, young people have an inbuilt optimism and ability to anticipate and adapt to change.
Improving staff retention – staff turnover tends to be lower as people who have trained with a business are more likely to stay with that business.
Willingness to learn – employers find younger people are more willing to learn. Young people brought up in the digital and internet age have a different approach to working life being more independent, flexible, and adaptable to change.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) launched their One Million Chances campaign to encourage employers to connect young people with the world of work through:

Work experience – unpaid placements introduce young people to the workplace and increase their confidence and employability. Students can provide employers with a resource and skills that allow one off tasks to be undertaken for which the business does not have the time or resource, enabling employers to try out potential recruits.
Apprenticeships – provide a cost-effective way of recruiting and training young people to gain experience and qualifications to overcome skills shortages. They help ease the school-to-work transition by providing structured training pathways into skilled jobs. There is government funding to assist with the costs and can include current staff members as well as new recruits. More information can be found here Employing an apprentice: Get funding www.gov.uk.
Internships – provide the first rung on the ladder to work for undergraduates or graduates (usually) seeking work experience. Students in sixth form colleges, further education colleges or other tertiary education are also included.

CIPD have published a checklist for employers to provide guidance and practical steps for engaging with these programmes, which can be downloaded here: Employers’ guide to youth employment and UK training programmes.

One of our clients, WorldSkills UK, is an independent charity and a partnership between employers, education, and governments and together they use international best practice to raise standards in apprenticeships and technical education so more young people and employers succeed. WorldSkills support young people across the globe via competitions-based training, assessment, and benchmarking, using the insights they gain from training as part of this global network to help raise standards across the UK. WorldSkills celebrates World Youth Skills Day via a range of activities and initiatives aimed at raising the profile and recognition of skilled people, showing how important skills are in achieving economic growth and personal success. Thewlis Graham Associates are proud to have supported WorldSkills UK with recent assignments.

According to the latest labour market data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the unemployment rate for young people aged between 16 to 24 in the Feb-Apr 2024 quarter was 13.6%, 2.3 percentage points higher than last year. This now means young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than any other age group.

With the General Election taking place in the UK On 4th July 2024, this is an opportunity to shape the future of the country and in particular invest in the training and development of our young people. Youth Employment UK have reviewed the main parties manifestos and summarised What have the parties pledged to tackle youth unemployment:

The Liberal Democrats ‘Fair deal’ approach promises to:

Fix the skills and recruitment crisis by investing in education and training, including increasing the availability of apprenticeships and career advice for young people.
Reform the apprenticeship levy with a broader and more flexible skills and training levy.
Create a new lifelong skills grant for adults to spend on education and training throughout their lives.
Boost the take-up of apprenticeships, including by guaranteeing they are paid at least the National Minimum Wage by scrapping the lower apprentice rate.

The Conservatives revealed their ‘clear plan, bold action, secure future’ to:

Remove funding for ‘low-quality’ degrees that result in poor progression pathways to pay for 100,000 more apprenticeships by 2029.
Transform 16-19 education by introducing the Advanced British Standard, enabling young people to receive a broader education by removing the divide between academic and technical learning.
Introduce a mandatory National Service for all school leavers at 18, with the choice between a competitive placement in the military or civic service roles.

The Green Party have pledged for ‘real hope, real change’ and advocating for:

Supporting every higher education student, with the restoration of grants and the end of tuition fees.
An increase in the minimum wage to £15 an hour, regardless of age, with the costs to small businesses offset by reducing their National Insurance payments.
Equal employment rights for all workers from their first day of employment, including those working in the ‘gig economy’ and on zero-hours contracts.

The Labour party have released their ‘plan for change’ and have pledged to:

Guarantee training, an apprenticeship, or help to find work for all 18- to 21-year-olds.
Establish Skills England to bring together business, training providers and unions with national and local government to ensure we have the highly trained workforce needed to deliver Labour’s Industrial Strategy.
Transform Further Education colleges into specialist Technical Excellence Colleges. These colleges will work with businesses, trade unions, and local government to provide young people with better job opportunities and the highly trained workforce that local economies need.
Reform the Apprenticeships Levy to a flexible Growth and Skills Levy to expand the scope.

Youth Employment UK argue, “It is important that all parties recognise that getting to employment is equally as important as ensuring young people are given good quality work opportunities … the winning government should prioritise an approach that results in a system where collaborative working is key and the needs of young people are at the forefront” (What have the parties pledged to tackle youth unemployment?).

How to mark World Youth Skills Day

Attend the live stream of the UN panel discussion on World Youth Skills Day – tune in on the day Live Schedule | UN Web TV.
Share on social media to spread awareness #worldyouthskillsday.
If have a vocation, you can offer guidance to young people looking to learn skills you know.

By investing in youth skills development, we are investing in the future, ensuring that young people are well prepared to navigate the complexities of the modern world and build a brighter sustainable future.

Lizzy Turek

Client Research Associate