WORLD YOUTH SKILLS DAY 2022: With Jumpstart Skills Foundation

WHAT IS WORLD YOUTH SKILLS DAY?

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2014 declared 15th July as World Youth Skills Day, to celebrate the importance of equipping young individuals with certain skills required for employment, work, and entrepreneurship. Since then, World Youth Skills Day has provided many with unique opportunities to establish a dialogue between young people, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, firms, employers’ and workers’ organizations, policy-makers, and development partners. 

In 2022 however, World Youth Skills Day takes place amid efforts taken towards making a complete socio-economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 that is also interspersed with rising global challenges such as climate change, conflicts, poverty, and rising inequalities, rapid technological change, demographic transition and many more. 

Young females, persons with disabilities, youth from low-income households, rural communities, indigenous peoples, and minority groups, and survivors of violent conflicts or political instability, continue to be excluded due to a multitude of factors. In addition, the crisis has accelerated several transitions the world of work was already undergoing, which add layers of uncertainty regarding the skills and competencies that will be in demand after the pandemic is overcome. 

The United Nations (UN) and its respective agencies, such as International Center for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNESCO-UNEVOC), help address these challenges by reducing barriers towards accessing the world of work, ensuring that skills gained are recognized and certified, and offering skills development opportunities for out-of-school youth and those not in employment, education or training (NEET). During this ‘Decade of Action’ for the 2030 Agenda, the full engagement of young people in global processes is vital to generate positive change and innovation.

JUMPSTART SKILL FOUNDATION

On the occasion of World Youth Skills Day, Our Vadodara interacted with JumpStart Skill Foundation to discuss the objectives and theme of this year’s Youth Skills Day along with their perspectives on the importance of skill-building for the youth of today’s generation.

JumpStart Skill Foundation is not only a section 8 registered company but also a social initiative that serves as a training platform to provide employment-enhancing skill development opportunities to economically underprivileged women who may not have had a chance to complete their formal education. The organization works toward creating specialized training programs in various professional disciplines common to the Corporate, Service, and Retail Sectors with the aim of making the candidates “Market Ready”.

Their vision and mission include empowering and inspiring the underprivileged communities through affordable education and skill development thus, creating economic sustainability and independence, while ‘transforming’ lives. Furthermore, capacity-building and provision of quality skill training that would lead to employability and professional opportunities in particular industries is one of their top goals.

Q&A

Our Vadodara held a Q&A session with JumpStart Skill Foundation where the following aspects were discussed upon:

1. When asked about the ratio of rural and urban students in their training program, JumpStart held that their training programs majorly include students from the urban setting, with the rural-urban ratio being 30:70. 
2. As a part of the ‘Digital India’ campaign, they were asked to talk about any skill training programs they organized for their students. In response to this,  JumpStart spoke of their strong belief in computer literacy and education. They had been teaching Computers as a subject under “Project Skill Smart” for Girls and “UpSkill Program” for boys. In recent years, they understood the value and importance of Digital Literacy especially since COVID and have upgraded our curriculum and added more advanced topics. For instance, the students learn to make quality PowerPoint presentations with advanced animations, report making, and accounting through tally software.
3. It is generally assumed that a skilled person, when compared with a daily-wage laborer, generally has a higher scope of employment. Keeping this in mind, JumpStart was asked if they had any programs or courses catering to the industrial sectors that have higher employability scopes. They responded to this by talking about the main focus of their courses, i.e., ‘creating basic white-collar jobs such as placements in administration-related work in various offices, creating receptionists, and sales executives’.
4. When asked about what kinds of training help develop entrepreneurial skills, they responded by talking about one of their special subjects called SEAL – ‘Skills for Entrepreneurship, Administration and Leadership’. The subject teaches students about the requirements to start a business. They learn about market research, and product research, during the course they create a business idea and make products, set the selling price, make a selling pitch and also sell the product. Post completion of this project they are awarded a certificate from YI & CII. The outcome of this project is to help the students explore their entrepreneurial side and become confident in their set career paths. This subject was specifically designed to teach our students all the intricate details involved in starting a business.
5.  JumpStart was asked to give their take on the unemployment rate in India and this year’s theme ‘Transforming youth skills for the future. They responded by saying that as per the latest ratio, the number of women or girls working in India was reducing for numerous reasons, which also affects India’s GDP. They believe that when a woman/ girl works or studies, it is not only her who’s developing but the whole family, society, and eventually the nation. JumpStart Skill Foundation was first established with the idea of bridging the gap ratio between males and females in the workplace. They implement this ideal by transforming unskilled labor into skilled professionals.

Source: United Nations

— An article by Shreya Raolji