Global Skills Academy targets one million youth skilling
The Organization unveiled the
project, Skills for a Resilient Youth in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond, on
World Youth Skills Day celebrated on 15 July.
Members of UNESCO’s Global
Education Coalition, launched in March to support countries in developing
inclusive learning solutions, are teaming up to provide youth with
opportunities to gain digital skills and other competences through free access
to online skills development programmes.
Partners’ offers will be pooled
within the GSA, providing a one-stop access to training opportunities.
Founding partners include
Coursera, Dior, Festo, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft, Orange Digital Centres and PIX.
International organizations and
partners including ILO, OECD and WorldSkills Competition will also contribute
to the project.
GSA will operate through a
matching process facilitated by UNEVOC, UNESCO’s global network for
institutions specialized in technical and vocational education and training.
Detailed information about
available trainings will be shared with the 250 UNEVOC centres in more than 160
member states. The centres will identify interested participants and connect
them to the coalition members’ training platforms. Outreach to disadvantaged
learners will be a priority.
“The crisis has highlighted the
urgency of equipping youth with the right skills to accelerate the transition
to more inclusive, sustainable and resilient economies,” said Stefania
Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO. “This requires
massive investment in education and skills training and expanded partnerships
with employers to narrow the gap between demand for skills and the workplace.”
The impact of the pandemic on
both education and employment has been dramatic. Students enrolled in training
institutions and apprentices have been particularly affected by closures as
they are more dependent on practical training and hardware that is only
available in training centres and workplaces.
According to the recent UN
Secretary General’s policy brief on the The World of Work and COVID-19, the
young account for more than 40% of people employed in hard-hit sectors
worldwide. Even before the crisis hit, 267 million young people were not in
employment, education or training.
Skills in such fields as data
analytics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning are in
demand in labour markets around the world, yet many education and training
systems lack the capacities needed to prepare youth for employment in these areas.
Founding partners’ contributions
include:
● Coursera: Workforce Recovery
Initiative, online learning to reskill unemployed workers to re-enter the
workforce
● Dior: Women@Dior programme, a
leadership educational program around the four core values of autonomy,
inclusion, creativity and sustainable development
● Huawei: Tech4All programme, a
digital skills training and MOOCS covering fields such as artificial
intelligence; big data and the Internet of Things
● Festo: e-learning modules in
water technology and wastewater management
● IBM: free access to platforms
providing training on emerging technologies and upskilling and reskilling for
youth and adults
● Microsoft: Free online courses
and real-world tools to build skills in technologies that help students and
jobseekers succeed in a post-Covid world
● Orange: Orange Digital Centres
for digital skills development and Orange Campus Services allowing access to
free on line courses, both in Africa and Middle East
● PIX: platform to evaluate, develop
and certify digital skills
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