World Youth Skills Day celebrated in New York

The World Youth Skills Day was celebrated for the second consecutive time on 15 July at the United Nations Headquarters. The event was organised by the Permanent Missions of Sri Lanka and Portugal, the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy for Youth, ILO and UNESCO. Resolution A/C.3/69/L.13/Rev.1, promoted by Sri Lanka was adopted in November 2014, declaring 15 July as a day dedicated to the development of youth skills. This year’s event was held under the theme ‘Skills Development to Improve Youth Employment’.

President of the General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft, in delivering the opening statement, noted that Skills Development is a primary means of enabling young people to make a smooth transition to work and that education and training can make the difference for youth between poverty and employment. He also highlighted the importance of initiatives like the UN system-wide Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth and stated that target 4.4 of the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals aims to do just that. 

Secretary-General’s Envoy for Youth Ahmad Alhendawi moderated the event and also delivered the message on behalf of the Secretary-General, in which the Secretary General emphasised how empowering young people through skills development strengthens their capacity to address the many challenges facing society, including poverty, injustice and violent conflict.   The Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Dr. Rohan Perera, addressing the opening session of the event, underlined that the answer to youth unemployment remains within the parameters of the market economy itself. He said that the “‘skills gap’ is something that will continue as long as students, educators and employers are not on the same page. Identification and prediction of market realities in future and aligning the skills training with them, is the need of this hour.” 

Minister for Sustainable Development and Wildlife Gamini Jayawickrama Perera making an intervention highlighted the present situation in terms of skills development and youth employment in Sri Lanka, and measures undertaken by the government to actively promote youth skills development. He said the subject of youth skills development has been taken under the aegis of a separate Cabinet Ministry called Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational Training. He underlined that Sri Lanka has realised the importance of having inclusiveness at all stages of the implementation of the SDGs and therefore, National Sustainable Development Roadmap that will lead towards the formulation of a legislative and institutional framework and a national strategy will underline the importance of skills training. 

ILO Deputy Director-General Field Operations and Partnerships Gilbert Houngbo, UNESCO Office in Santiago Director Jorge Sequiera and General Electric Business Innovations Vice Chair Beth Comstock also delivered opening statements. Annisa Triyanti, a youth delegate delivered the final statement of the opening session as representative of the Major Group for Children and Youth.

The opening session was followed by a partnership dialogue, which included representatives from government, UN entities, trade union, education, civil society, and private sector, representing the cross-cutting levels of labour which all play an integral role in employment, and expressed their views on the relationship between skills development and youth employment. A robust exchange of views followed soon after with member states, youth and other representatives raising questions and expressing their remarks on the matter at hand.  The event was telecast live to a conference of youth in Bonn, Germany, organised by UNESCO-UNEVOC, and was webcast live on UN Web TV.