Den Inhalt vun dëser Säit ass net op Lëtzebuergesch verfügbar On 15 July 2026, young leaders, governments, educators, employers, workers, civil society organizations and United Nations partners marked World Youth Skills Day under the theme "Skills for a Shared Future". The central message was clear: young people should not be prepared merely to enter the labour market. They should be equipped to shape a more inclusive, sustainable and human-centred future. Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2014, World Youth Skills Day recognizes the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship. The 2026 activities, including the UNESCO-UNEVOC webinar and the United Nations event in New York, examined how education and training systems can respond to artificial intelligence, the green transition and increasing social complexity. strong>What do young people need? The discussions demonstrated that technical competence remains necessary but is no longer sufficient. Young people need a balanced portfolio combining vocational and technical expertise with digital, AI, green, social-emotional and civic competencies. Creativity, critical thinking, communication, adaptability, ethical judgement and empathy are especially important because they represent human capacities that technologies cannot simply replace. This has major implications for adult learning. The young people entering education and employment today will become the adult learners of tomorrow. During their working lives, they are likely to move between occupations, sectors and different forms of employment. Their initial qualifications will therefore need to be supported by flexible and continuous opportunities for reskilling and upskilling. Education systems should prepare learners not only to perform a current job but also to manage repeated transitions. Learning how to learn, evaluate information, collaborate across cultures and respond constructively to uncertainty must become central educational outcomes. AI literacy must include ethics Artificial intelligence was a major focus of World Youth Skills Day 2026. However, the discussions moved beyond the operational use of AI tools. Participants emphasized the importance of understanding how AI influences decisions, employment, communication, and access to information. Nila Ibrahimi, a Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals, argued that AI literacy should help young people ask not only what technology can do, but also what it should do. Her contribution highlighted the importance of courage, trust, empathy, communication, and ethical judgment alongside technical competence. For adult education providers, AI literacy should therefore include critical evaluation, responsible data use, awareness of algorithmic bias, privacy, media literacy, and the ability to recognize misinformation. UNESCO's Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence similarly places human dignity, human rights, inclusion, transparency, and fairness at the center of responsible AI development and use. Skills must lead to decent opportunities The importance of skills is inseparable from the quality of available employment. According to the ILO's Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024, the global youth unemployment rate fell to 13% in 2023, its lowest level in 15 years. Nevertheless, 20.4% of young people were not in employment, education, or training. The gender gap remained particularly severe: the global NEET rate was 28.1% among young women, compared with 13.1% among young men. These figures show that offering training alone is not enough. Skills programs must be connected to career guidance, work-based learning, mentoring, entrepreneurship support, and pathways into secure and fairly paid employment. The adoption of the ILO's Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention in June 2026 is particularly relevant. As digital platforms create new employment and income opportunities, young people also need to understand labor rights, social protection, algorithmic management, and collective representation. Technological innovation should expand opportunities without weakening dignity, fairness, or security at work. TVET and lifelong learning as connected systems Technical and vocational education and training can serve as a bridge among education, employment, and adult learning. Effective TVET systems can respond to changing labor-market needs, offer work-based learning, recognize skills acquired in different settings, and provide new opportunities for people who are unemployed, underemployed, or outside formal education. However, this requires a shift from one-time training towards lifelong skills ecosystems. Short courses, micro-credentials, digital badges, and modular programs can help learners update their skills throughout life. These opportunities should be stackable, transparent, and recognized by education providers and employers. Green skills will also become increasingly important. The transition towards more sustainable economies could create an estimated 8.4 million jobs for young people by 2030. Yet these opportunities can only be realized when environmental awareness is combined with relevant technical skills, entrepreneurship, systems thinking, and decent working conditions. Young people as partners in designing learning Perhaps the most important message from World Youth Skills Day 2026 was that young people should not be viewed simply as beneficiaries of education policies. They must be recognized as partners, innovators, and leaders whose experiences help shape education and the future of work. UNESCO-UNEVOC*'s global youth survey, which involved more than 11,000 young people from over 80 countries, illustrates the value of bringing youth perspectives into skills policy and program design. A shared future will not be created by technology alone. It will depend on people who can continue learning, question responsibly, cooperate across differences and apply their knowledge for the common good. World Youth Skills Day 2026 reminds us that preparing tomorrow's adults begins by giving today's young people both the skills and the voice to shape that future. *As UNESCO's only designated centre for technical and vocational education and training (TVET), UNESCO-UNEVOC supports Member States in their efforts to strengthen and upgrade their TVET systems. UNESCO-UNEVOC promotes increased opportunities for productive work, sustainable livelihoods, personal empowerment and socio-economic development, especially for youth, women and the marginalized. Through its innovative projects, capacity-building programmes and collaborative activities with the global UNEVOC Network, UNESCO-UNEVOC works to expand access to quality skills training and development for all.
