International Youth Day observed to empower youth with skills

City Desk  :
This year’s International Youth Day, observed on Saturday, is taking place under the theme “Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World”.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres defines green skills as the “knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support sustainable and resource-efficient societies, economies and communities.”

Green jobs, and a workforce with the skills to fill them, are essential for meeting climate targets.

New LinkedIn data in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2023 report shows that hiring for green roles consistently outpaced the overall hiring rate globally for four years in a row.

At this moment, young generations know that climate change is undeniably upon us.

Its effects have already displaced millions of youth in search of new beginnings and is radically shifting labour markets, with millions of youth having left or lost jobs with unprecedented disruption in recent years.

Today, 33% of the unemployed population globally is youth. Young people are also more likely to be in precarious work.

According to International Labour Organization data, young employees are twice as likely as adult workers to live in extreme poverty or be informally employed with little or no social protection.

Even in the best of times, young people are among the least represented in political institutions and face severe disadvantages in labour markets.