World Youth Skills Day
Next: July 15, 2027
For every apprentice learning a trade.
The story
Where it comes from
World Youth Skills Day was Sri Lanka's idea. The proposal for a UN day on young people's skills was raised at the UN General Assembly in 2013, and in May 2014 young people and ministers meeting at the World Conference on Youth in Colombo called on the UN to create one. That December the General Assembly agreed by consensus to declare 15 July World Youth Skills Day, to highlight technical, vocational and other skills as a path to good work and better lives. It was first marked on 15 July 2015.
How it's celebrated
UNESCO, the International Labour Organization and the UN mark the day with events in New York, Paris and Bonn, and dozens of UNESCO-UNEVOC centres around the world hold their own, from exhibitions and talks to youth skills competitions and panel debates. For the rest of us, it is a good day to thank whoever taught us a trade, or to cheer on someone starting their first job.
Did you know
- The first international skills contest, the start of today's WorldSkills Competition, was held in Madrid in 1950 between 12 young Spanish and 12 young Portuguese apprentices.
- The WorldSkills Competition first came to Asia in 1970, when it was held in Tokyo.
- Sri Lanka says the resolution was the only one it had promoted at the UN in New York since 1999.
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