LACK OF SKILLS IN YOUTH A Worrying Scenario

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A report by UNICEF recently found that 3 in 4 youth lack the skills needed for employment.

 

 

ducation and training are essential requirements to increase the chances of employability. They are central to ensuring their successful transition into the labour market and their access to career-oriented employment. Youths need to acquire the skills, knowledge, competencies and attitudes that will allow them to find work and cope with an unpredictable labour market.
According to a recent analysis released by the Education Commission and UNICEF ahead of World Youth Skills Day, over three-quarters of young people aged 15 to 24 in the 92 countries (where the data are acquired) are on the wrong road to gaining the skills required for employment. The findings suggest that children and young people across all age groups have poor skill levels, with young people in low-income nations having the lowest

likelihood of possessing the skills necessary to flourish, especially in future career chances, labour, and entrepreneurship. Robert Jenkins, the director of education for UNICEF, said, “For prosperity, development, and the success of communities and economies, a generation of children and young people who are inspired and skilled, is essential. However, the majority of children and teenagers around the world have experienced failure in their educational institutions, leaving them untrained, unmotivated, and uninformed — the ideal recipe for inefficiency.” He added, “Investment in cost-effective, proven solutions to fast-track learning and skills development for today’s generation and future generations is urgently needed to address this crisis.”
With high rates of out-of-school young people and low attainment of secondary-level skills, countries worldwide are facing a skills crisis, with the majority of youth unprepared to take part in today’s workforce, the report notes. The survey found that skills are poor in children and teenagers of all ages after analysing

 

With high rates of out-of-school young people and low attainment of secondary-level skills, countries worldwide are facing a skills crisis, with the majority of youth unprepared to take part in today’s workforce

 

the features of skill development in childhood and adolescence. Young people in low-income nations are less likely to have the skills necessary for success, particularly in terms of future employment options, respectable employment, and starting their own businesses. As a result, the majority of young people are ill-equipped to compete in the modern job.
According to the report’s further explanation, more than 75% of young people in one of the three low-income countries lack secondary, digital, and occupation-specific skills. Inequalities are growing as a result of significant differences across nations and among residents of the poorest neighbourhoods. More than 85% of young people are off-track in acquiring secondary-level, digital, and job-specific skills in at least one in three low-income nations, according to the research. Less than 75% of children between the ages of 3 and 5 are currently developing at least three of the four domains of literacy, physical development, social development, and learning, according to statistics from six nations.
The majority of children in low- and middle-income nations are unable to read and comprehend simple text by the time they are 10 years old, according to the survey. The lack of these basic skills is becoming a hindrance to their future education and skill development. They still rely heavily on informal systems of apprenticeship to teach people new skills, and many of these nations have rigid customs and traditions governing these systems.
Although it varies depending on the society, it is often defined by an informal relationship between a trainee and a ‘master’ trainer, where the trainee learns by watching and helping, by ‘serving’ the ‘master.’ Eventually, after completing training and honing their talents in the workshop, the graduate launches his or her own firm. It is crucial to remember that informal apprenticeships may result in the exploitation of cheap labour or may end up passing on current skills without teaching new ones in situations of extreme poverty. The trainee gains knowledge of business operations, supplier relations, product pricing and marketing, and account-keeping procedures through this process.
UNICEF and the Education Commission have called for urgent investment to tackle the global education and skills crisis. “We must provide holistic support for young people if we want to offer them the best chance to succeed and make up for lost academic ground caused by the pandemic. But what we don’t quantify, we can’t retrieve. Knowing where children and young people stand in developing the variety of abilities they require will help us track their development. In order to fill in critical data gaps, the Education Commission, UNICEF, and other partners launched the World Skills Clock to track progress and raise awareness about youth skill attainment globally. This will allow us to focus urgent action to get this generation ready for the future and thrive,” said Liesbet Steer, executive director of the Education Commission.
In order to succeed, children should have the following skills – fundamental literacy and numeracy, transferable skills like life and socioemotional skills, digital skills that allow people to use and understand technology, job-specific skills that support the transition into the workforce, and entrepreneurial skills. Additionally essential to the growth of businesses and communities are these abilities.
In the past 15 years, the use of school-based institutions for teaching workplace skills has grown, and many nations now use a system where skills training runs concurrently with the traditional school curricula. There isn’t a single, unified system in the vast majority of nations where all children attend the same kind of school and adhere to the same curriculum. In many systems, students have the option of attending vocational schools or continuing their education just in

 

the academic stream. The latter group is typically allowed to enrol in higher education, albeit it could be challenging to meet the entrance standards.
Governments around the world were urged by UNICEF and the Education Commission to guarantee every kid a high-quality education and lower the likelihood that they will drop out. A generation of motivated and capable children and young people is essential for prosperity, advancement, and economic success, according to Robert Jenkins, director of UNICEF Education. However, the global education system has left the majority of children and teenagers uneducated, disheartened, and unskilled.

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