World Youth Skills Day: 82% Students Believe College Education Didn't Equip Them With Relevant Skills

World Youth Skills Day is observed every year on July 15 to celebrate the significance of training young people with skills for employment and entrepreneurship. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Skill India campaign on this day in 2015 to train over 30 crore people in India in different skills by 2022.

In 2014, the United Nations General Assembly declared July 15 as World Youth Skills Day. Since then, it has provided a unique opportunity for dialogue between youngsters, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, firms, workers' and employers' organisations, policy-makers and development partners.

This year, the theme for World Youth Skills Day is 'Transforming Youth Skills for the future'. The celebrations will focus on Transforming Education Summit and contributing to the work being done under its Thematic Action Track which is "Learning and skills for life, work, and sustainable development".

This year, the day occurs amid concerted efforts toward socio-economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic interconnected with challenges like climate change, conflict, rising inequality, persisting poverty, demographic transition, rapid technological change and others.

According to the United Nations, young girls and women, youth with disabilities, youth from low-income households, rural communities, indigenous individuals, and minority groups, as well as those who suffer the consequences of violent conflict and political instability, continue to be excluded due to various factors. In addition, the crisis has increased several transitions the world of work was already undergoing, which add layers of uncertainty regarding the skills and competencies that will be in demand after the COVID-19 pandemic is overcome.

The UN and its agencies, such as UNESCO-UNEVOC, are well placed to help address these challenges by minimising access barriers to the world of work, ensuring that skills gained are recognised and certified, and offering skills development opportunities for out-of-school youngsters and those not in employment, education or training (NEET). During this Decade of Action for the 2030 Agenda, the full engagement of young individuals in global processes is essential to generate positive change and innovation.

According to a News18 report, there has been a growing increase in technical courses among Indians in the first quarter of 2022. Among the top skills include Microsoft SC-200, Dynamic Programming, and Microsoft Playwright, according to an open online course provider Udemy. It revealed that 82 per cent of employees surveyed agreed that their college education has not equipped them with the skills they require to succeed in the current job market.

Current Knowledge Becoming Obsolete

While 84 per cent of the individuals said that skills are changing so quickly that their current knowledge is becoming obsolete, 86 per cent said their employer provides professional development, and 61 per cent claimed they would leave their present job if the company did not provide relevant skill development to them, Irwin Anand, MD India and APAC, Udemy said.

The top skills surging in India between April-June 2022 were Microsoft SC-200-479 per cent increase in consumption compared to the first quarter of 2022, Dynamic Programming-235 per cent, Microsoft Playwright-231 per cent, PCB Design-214 per cent, PCI DSS-196 per cent, SAP PP-184 per cent, Datadog-141 per cent, Business Etiquette-129 per cent, AWS Amplify-124 per cent and Yocto Project-122 per cent.

Digital Skills In Demand

Technical or digital skills have sharply increased in the past few years. "Digital skills are in demand at current workplaces, and this is set to continue. Digital skills benefit people, from being dedicated employees to paving their way to be a leader," said web domain company, GoDaddy.

It added that the most sought-after digital skills for the workplace are managing a website, social media management, content marketing, data analytics, and affiliate marketing.

As per Wadhani Foundation, one of the most in-demand roles is data analytics in 2022, with 96 per cent of the companies planning to hire related roles. This includes advanced excel, data cleaning and collection, data research, data visualisation, and mathematical and statistics skills. Other in-demand jobs include digital marketing, project management, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, data science and artificial intelligence.

Meanwhile, as per Coursera's latest Global Skills Report (GSR) 2022 although there are many courses in online and offline modes in data science. People in India are not deemed to be skilled in the domain. The country has gone down by four places from 2021 and has been placed at the 68th position worldwide in data science proficiency. In Asia, India stands at the 19th position.

"Time is one of the most significant factors when it comes to non-completion of courses," said Udemy.

Also Read: Uttarakhand Becomes India's First State To Implement National Education Policy At Pre-Primary Level