Celebrate the winners of the World Youth Skills Day 2015 campaign

The inaugural World Youth Skills Day was celebrated on 15 July, 2015 with fanfare around the world. Along with various national and regional skill organizations, as well as governmental and non-governmental agencies, WorldSkills was proud to celebrate the first-ever day dedicated to focusing global attention on the relevance and critical importance of skills and youth development as a tool to benefit economies and societies. 

WorldSkills launched a campaign lead by Simon Bartley, President of WorldSkills, on 15 July, 2015. In his video message, Simon called on the WorldSkills community to share a “Day in the Life” of a Competitor or a young skilled professional. We are pleased to present a selection of the wonderful entries we received; view them on YouTube or at the end of this page. Thank you to all the WorldSkills community who joined us in this celebration.

We are happy to announce the “winners” of our campaign challenge. Congratulations to Ma Weixin, a Competitor in Graphic Design Technology representing WorldSkills Member China, for her Member campaign winning video entry “The Beauty of Design”. Ma’s illustration of the design process and skill, in combination with the high quality and aesthetics of her story and imagery, are outstanding. 

Congratulations also goes to Ana Vashadze, winner of the Public campaign. Ana is a Competitor in Floristry from Tbilisi, Georgia, and her “Day in the life” video tells a wonderful and beautiful story of the dedication and enjoyment she has for her life’s skill and work. You can nearly smell the flowers in her beautiful bouquets! 

In receiving word of her award, Ana said, “World Youth Skills Day has become a very important day in my life, as this day is connected to my first success outside the borders of my country, and it will become the day of motivation and inspiration for generations to come. For me, floristry is freedom; it calms me; and I feel very happy that I am a florist. Floristry helps me express myself, and breathe life into my ideas. For me, it is art, and like art it expresses the character, mood, and individuality of the artist.”

To see Ma’s and Ana’s videos, along with a sampling of other entries in the campaign, go to: https://worldskills.org/WYSD 

Other activities that happened around the world included a conference at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York was organized by the Permanent Missions of Sri Lanka and Portugal. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), ILO (International Labour Organization), and the Office of the United Nation’s Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth also supported the efforts of the two missions in convening this event. Attention focused not only on the skills gap leading to unemployment, but also on the need for encouraging a holistic view of the connectedness between life skills and employability skills. Since the number of 15 to 24 year olds reached 1.2 billion in 2014 - representing approximately a sixth of the world’s total population - it was noted that addressing the needs and interests of youth is paramount to ensuring a vibrant global future. This UN event was telecast live to a conference of youth in Bonn, Germany, organized by UNESCO-UNEVOC - the UN specialized agency for technical and vocational education and training. Watch the broadcast on webtv.un.

Congratulations to all who shared this very special calendared day with the United Nations and us. We look forward to planning ahead for an even bigger and better celebration of World Youth Skills Day 2016!