One in every three youngsters in the world strongly feels that education does not equip him with skills required to grab a job, if an online poll is an indication.
A large-scale poll done by UNICEF involving over 40,000 young people from 150 countries showed that many of them felt that the current education was not good enough to prepare them with the skills they need to get jobs.
One third (31 per cent) of the young people responding via the UNICEF engagement platform U-Report say that the skills and training programmes offered to them did not match their career aspirations. More than a third of respondents (39 per cent) go on to say that the jobs they seek are not available in their communities.
According to the poll, the key skills young people want to acquire in order to help them gain employment in the next decade include leadership (22 per cent), followed by analytical thinking and innovation (19 per cent), and information and data processing (16 per cent).
To address some of these challenges, UNICEF and PwC are joining forces over the next three years to help equip young people around the world with the skills they need for future work. The collaboration will support research on the growing global skills challenge and develop, expand and fund education and skills programmes in countries including India and South Africa.
“Young people are telling us they want digital and transferable skills to succeed in the workplace of the future,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said. “This crucial need can only be met through the contributions of public and private partners around the globe. That is why we are working with partners like PwC to provide opportunities for personal growth and prosperity for young people everywhere.”
Every month, 10 million young people reach working age, most of them coming from low and middle-income countries. According to a global research, it takes young people in those countries about a year and a half on average to break into the labour market, and a staggering four and a half years to find their first decent job.[2] This situation could potentially further deteriorate if it isn’t addressed, with 20-40% of the jobs currently held by 16-24 year olds assessed to be at risk of automation by the mid-2030s.
