Inviting Changemakers to join BeChangeMaker Youth Festival 

The annual BeChangeMaker Youth Festival is scheduled to host its second edition on Wednesday, 29 April 2026. Organized by UNESCO-UNEVOC and supported by WorldSkills and the HP Foundation, the online event is expected to bring together over 300 young people in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), as well as BeChangeMaker alumni worldwide.

Under the theme “The Changemaker’s Toolkit: Skills for Life in the Future Economy,” the event will focus on the transferable skills that can help young people anchor their technical knowledge and be prepared for an uncertain future.

Skills like critical thinking, emotional resilience, collaboration, digital literacy, ethical reasoning, and self-directed learning form the foundation of a young person’s ability to adapt, equipping them to manage shifting careers, venture into entrepreneurship, respond to disrupted industries, and continuously learn new skills. The festival will showcase how skills for life can be cultivated and applied through social enterprises, TVET programmes and community projects.

This is particularly relevant for the BeChangeMaker movement, which over the past decade has supported skilled young people with a platform and the training to accelerate their business ideas and turn them into impact.

During the event, concrete initiatives aimed at addressing climate vulnerability, digital exclusion, mental health, and youth unemployment will be presented by young social innovators from the BeChangeMaker network. In parallel, experts and TVET practitioners will be focusing on ways to integrate such experiences into mainstream systems.  

BeChangeMaker Youth Festival is grounded in the UNESCO TVET Strategy 2022–2029 framing of skills to learn, work and live. It is open to student leaders, youth social entrepreneurs, TVET students, mentors, partner representatives, and to hundreds of young people who have participated in one of the ten editions of the BeChangeMaker.

The event will take place on Wednesday, 29 April, 11:00–13:30 (GMT+2). More information on the event and how to register can be found on the BeChangeMaker Youth Festival 2026 website.