Champions Trust participates in Skills for a Resilient Youth UNESCO-UNEVOC Conference

Members of the WorldSkills Champions Trust, each will explain how they are meeting the challenges of coronavirus and what the skills community can do to help them and other young people.

The event, Skills for a Resilient Youth, is part of World Youth Skills Day on 15 July and is organized by the United Nations body that supports Vocational Education and Training, UNESCO-UNEVOC .

The three Champions are Leo Rodrigues from Brazil, who competed at WorldSkills São Paulo 2015 in Jewellery, Shae White of Barbados, who competed at WorldSkills Kazan 2019 in Cooking and Yousra Assali, the Electronics Competitor for Morocco, also at Kazan in 2019.

Lee and Shae are regional representatives for the Americas, while Yousra is the Champions Trust representative for MENA, the Middle East and North Africa Region.

Each has produced a video that will address questions ranging from the changes COVID-19 has brought to their own plans, ways in which their skills might be used in the future, and how the TVET community can support young people during this crisis.

World Youth Skills Day comes this year at a time when millions of skilled young people have seen their education severely disrupted, their job hopes dwindle, and sometimes found themselves on the front line of the battle against COVID-19 as key workers.

The UNESCO-UNEVOC Conference will begin on 6 July and continue daily until 13 July with a format of moderated online forum discussions that will allow participants to submit their views and questions.

Daily themes include:

Monday, 6 July Implications of the pandemic on youth skills development

Tuesday, 7 July TVET institutions: Good practices in distance learning in no-, low-, and high-tech scenarios

Thursday, 9 July Labour market: Implications of the pandemic on jobs and future skills development

Friday, 10 July Young people: Perspectives on their hopes and fears going forward

Monday, 13 July TVET systems: System-wide responses to the impact of the pandemic

Everyone with an interest or stake in vocational skills and education is invited to join, but must first register with a free UNEVOC account.

More details are available on the organization’s website.

While the forums will be held in English, contributions can be made in any language, with participants encouraged to follow using web-based translation services.