A multi-stakeholder platform that aims to prepare youngsters to transition from education and learning to productive work and active citizenship, YuWaah was established in 2019 by UNICEF along with public and private sector organisations, UN agencies, civil society organisations among others, as part of the Generation Unlimited initiative.

Over the past three years, the organisation has aimed to create an ecosystem that equips young people to develop problem-solving skills, says Dhuwarakha Sriram, Chief of Generation Unlimited (YuWaah), Adolescent/Youth Development and Partnerships at UNICEF India. In this interview, she talks about the need to empower youngsters with life skills. Excerpts:

What are the initiatives YuWaah has launched recently?

YuWaah launched a series of programmes for young people such as Young People’s Action Team (YPAT), which gives young people representation at all governance levels within YuWaah including the Advisory Board; Passport2Earning, an initiative that provides continuous access to skilling, re-skilling, and upskilling requirements through online training, blended learning models, and offline engagement and engaging with government and partner organisations to provide career guidance to more than 20 million young people.

The organisation is also working on national youth policy, recommendations for the apprenticeship policy, and 21st-century skills framework, and, along with UNICEF, spearheading a partnership with the World Economic Forum to bring together 60 partners on working on gaps and key priorities on digital infrastructure for learning in India.

Why are employability and life skills critical for the youth?

Youth employment is critical for the social and economic stability and growth of any economy. Young people today are subject to extreme market volatility and uncertainty. Furthermore, COVID-19 and its aftermath have exacerbated the pre-existing conditions of the digital divide, and gender and urban-rural inequalities. As the world becomes more digital, there is a strong need to expand our academic curriculum to include life and employability skills and social-emotional learning for the 21st century. The school-to-work transition should be seen as a process that enables young people to move from education to productive and decent work. The way forward is to leverage technology to bridge the employability and employment gap. Democratising access to education and skills can be truly transformational, and we have seen many successful experiments worldwide using technology to provide job matching and end-to-end employment-related services to young people.

How can society help ease the education-to-employment transition?

By creating platforms that provide young people with an opportunity to connect with external experts and giving them access to tools, resources, and mentors that help them develop leadership capabilities. We should focus on capacity building and opportunities where young people can be a part of the decision-making processes. Work-integrated learning will enable an immersion into the role, giving them the opportunity to explore new and exciting roles as well as a medium to apply the theoretical knowledge learnt through formal and non-formal means.

However, education should not be just about preparing a young person for the world of work. It needs to be aimed towards enriching them as an individual, and as a member of a community. We need to equip our young people with the life skills that not only influence workplace productivity but also empower them to navigate the uncertainties, opportunities and dynamism of our current age.

Can you tell us about the life skills that youngsters need to develop?

In general, the youth need to develop a mix of foundational, transferable and technical and vocational skills. This should also involve digital skills and other interventions such as job search skills, career counselling and guidance and help with placements. Foundational skills include literacy and numeracy which are essential for further learning, productive employment and civic engagement. Transferable skills involve creativity, communication and problem-solving that allow them to be lifelong learners and adapt to rapid changes in society and the economy.

The forthcoming UNICEF Global Framework on Transferable Skills has categorised them as Cognitive (to do with thinking and includes the ability to focus, problem solve, make informed choices, and set plans and goals); Social (to do with interaction and includes the ability to communicate, collaborate, resolve conflict and negotiate); Emotional (to do with understanding and regulating one’s own emotions, coping with stress, understanding emotions of others, and the ability to empathise); Digital (to do with the use and understanding of technology, the ability to search for and manage information, communicate, collaborate, create and share content, build knowledge and solve problems safely, critically and ethically, in a way that is appropriate for their age, local language and local culture); and Technical and Vocational (to with one or more occupations). The wider the application of a skillset, the more flexible and responsive the holder can be in a changing labour market.

Published - February 04, 2023 07:12 pm IST