Parenta July 2020 Magazine

World Youth Skills Day
What are you good at? DIY? Cooking? Construction? Designing? Or are you great at
customer service or organising things? Everyone is good at something and we all possess
at least one skill or talent that we can share with the world and use to not only enhance
our own lives, but those of our families and communities too.
On Wednesday 15th July, people
across the world will celebrate World
Youth Skills Day – a day set aside to
help to build confidence, empower
communities and fuel economies. It’s
organised by WorldSkills, a worldwide
organisation supported by the United
Nations and various countries and
industry partners, who see a role for
education, industry, government and
policy makers to raise the profile and
recognition of skilled professionals
around the globe. Their vision is to
improve the world through the power
of skills and their mission is to raise
the profile and recognition of skilled
people, and show how important
skills are in achieving economic
growth and personal success, as well
as addressing the challenges of youth
unemployment in the world. With the
Covid-19 pandemic set to adversely
affect the employment prospects of
many young people in particular,
there has never been a better time to
champion their skills, join in and help.
How did it start?
At the end of the Second World War,
many country’s economies, especially
in Europe had been devastated by
6 years of brutal war. There was a
huge skills shortage which needed
to be addressed if the world was
to get back on its feet, not only to
rebuild the infrastructure that had
been destroyed, but to avert a new
economic depression. Spain and
Portugal recognised the need to
promote skills in their youth and
Francisco Albert Vidal was charged
with creating a skills contest to inspire
and motivate them.
This led to a small competition in
Madrid in 1950, and although small
compared to today’s standards, it
started an international movement.
In 1958, the competition moved
abroad for the first time, to Brussels,
Belgium and in 1965 it came to
Glasgow, UK. As more and more
countries joined the movement,
different skills were added and new
outreach programmes included. The
competition returned to the UK in
1989 in Birmingham, and by 2007,
the Japanese hosts at Shizouka
introduced the “One School, One
Country” initiative which paired each
country’s competition team with a
local school in the host country. The
teams worked with the schools over
the week to introduce them to a
variety of vocational skills and diverse
cultures. Currently, there are now over
84 member organisations, potentially
reaching two-thirds of the world’s
population and the competitions are
bigger than ever. Competitors need
to be 22 or under, but in certain team
events, the age limit is to 25.
Competitions, conferences
and collaboration
Although July 15th is celebrated each
year as World Youth Skills Day, there
are competitions, selections, trainings
and other country-led initiatives going
on throughout the year in individual
countries and regions. The worldwide
international competition is held every
two years, with the next one being in
China in Shanghai in 2021, and there
are European competitions every
second year too.
But it’s not all about competition
– it really is about motivating and
encouraging young people to learn
skills that can potentially change their
lives. The WorldSkills website says:
“We believe #SkillsChangeLives.
Through the power of skills,
individuals, communities, and
countries are propelled towards a
more prosperous future.”
WorldSkills UK is the official WorldSkills
member for the UK and is recognised
by the United Nations. It has been
influential in raising awareness
of the need for young people to
acquire new skills to advance their
socio-economic conditions since its
inception. They have a lot of free
resources on their website including
a careers advice toolkit, tutorials and
skill demonstration videos, and the
opportunity to have a Skills Champion
(a young person who has proven their
skill in a competition) visit a school or
college to talk about their experiences
and teach some skills.
Whilst this may not seem as relevant
for early years children as for older
young people, there are many settings
across the UK who employ apprentices
which could benefit from learning
new skills or enhancing the skills
they already have. As a responsible
employer, it would be advantageous
to empower your workforce right
across the board. The range of skills
promoted by WorldSkills is diverse;
from aeronautical engineering to
floristry; fitness training to web
design; and stonemasonry to digital
merchandising to name just a few, so
there really is ‘something for everyone’.
In the UK, there are 4 main
categories:
• Engineering and Technology
• Digital, Business and Creative
• Health, Hospitality and
Lifestyle
• Construction and Infrastructure
New skills are being added as they
develop and competitors can now
compete in health and social care
categories, so we, at Parenta, are
keen to see if early years or nursery
practitioner skills make it into the
competition arena soon.
All of these events and competitions
raise the awareness of youth skills
and can help you in your recruitment
drives whether there are competitions
or not because attending events
will ultimately bring you into contact
with careers advisers, trainers and
young people who are interested
in apprenticeships, training and
upskilling themselves.
WorldSkills UK LIVE 2020
The UK’s largest skills, apprenticeships
and careers event is planned to take
place on November 19-21, 2020 but
obviously this cannot be confirmed
at present due to current lockdown
restrictions. However, you can sign
up on the website here to register
your interest and receive updates
and relevant information about the
event and other related WorldSkills UK
content.
To show your support for the day,
WorldSkills UK are encouraging
people to use the hashtag
#SkillsRuleTheWorld on their social
media accounts and share a behindthe-scenes
photo of how they develop,
share and get young people to develop
their skills at work. Why not inspire the
young people in your setting to learn
some new skills such as cooking, some
DIY or basic construction? You never
know when they might come in handy!
12 July 2020 | parenta.com
parenta.com | July 2020 13