SL, Portugal spearhead maiden World Youth Skills Day at UN HQ

The first ever World Youth Skills (WYS) Day was celebrated at the United Nations headquarters in New York on July 15, with a conference organised by the Permanent Missions of Sri Lanka and Portugal.

WYS Day was declared as a result of the Colombo Declaration adopted in November 2014. It was established after Sri Lanka took a lead role in conveying the calls of young people worldwide, who gathered in Colombo in May 2014, for the World Conference on Youth. It was important to focus on the skills gap that causes unemployment, but member States and stakeholders must also take a holistic view that included life skills and employable skills, said Dr Rohan Perera, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

“Strengthening skills of youth was a solution identified by youth in addressing the social and employment crisis the world is facing today,” Dr Perera said. He noted that the number of 15-24-year-olds had reached 1.2 billion in 2014, representing a 6th of the world’s total population. Their needs could not be ignored.

An interactive dialogue followed with the participation of representatives from the UN Department of Economic & Social Affairs, World Bank, Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development, AIESEC, several young entrepreneurs, youth coalitions, advocacy groups and NGOs.

The event was telecast live to a conference of youth in Bonn, G e r m a ny, organised by UNESCO- UNEVOC, the United Nations special agency for Technical & Vocational Education and Training.