India, 15th July 2020 – The aim of the World Youth Skills Day is to recognize the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship, and to highlight the crucial role of skilled youth in addressing the current and future employment and underemployment challenges across the globe.
The theme of World Youth Skills 2020i.e. ‘Skills for a Resilient Youth’ is set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The resultant challenges are plenty with a rise in unemployment, digital becoming the new normal and adapting to new-age learning based on relentless advances in technology like mobile technologies, AI, Machine Learning, green energy, drone technology etc., becoming a must.
According to reports, India is likely to have the world’s largest workforce by 2027. Hence, it is important to integrate skilling program into the curriculum right from the school stage to address the looming fracture in the skills supply chain arising due to the marked disconnect between the academia output and the industry requirements. This will enable India to meet the aspirations of the youth by preparing them to enter the future workforce.
Soft Skills or employability skills is the buzz in the global skills domain today. The reason is simple. While hard or technical skills can be acquired and taught, soft skills have more to do with character, relationships and personality. Therefore, employers see soft skills as key to interpersonal relations, fostering employee retention, improving leadership, and building a meaningful culture within the organization.
Wadhwani Foundation is focused on empowering the youth with 21st century employability skills to enable them to command family supporting wages through on-demand, AI-enabled accessto high-quality skilling. The Foundation is also focused on integrating skilling with shop-floor training for vocational careers and enables employers, vocational trainers, and academic Institutes to adoptemployability programs for superior outcomes.
