What You Need To Know About World Youth Skills Day

Hello everybody! This is Jody Ann Johnson, Peoples Strategist and Champion with the 92nd episode of “Coffee with Jody”. Today’s topic is World Youth Skills Day, which is July 15th and the importance of developing our talent to meet the needs of the business community and fulfill on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  

Let’s say you’re a young person whose school and education has been disrupted over the course of the pandemic. On the other hand you’re a business owner or recruitment professional looking for talent. What a mismatched disconnect over the last 18 months! And not just over the last 18 months, we can look back at conversations regarding the lack of talent in many industries for years and years, particularly in Miami-Dade South Florida.  

Did you know that young people between the ages of 15 and 24 have been even more severely affected by COVID-19 crisis than the adults have been? Globally youth employment fell 8.7% in 2020 compared with 3.7% for adults. Most young people are going into entry-level positions and those positions were actually decimated during that time.  

If you think about the hospitality industry, restaurants, fast food or those types of positions during the pandemic, as my niece, who works in a fast food restaurant had happened to her, many of these facilities were closed down and no they weren’t hiring. 

Now that they’re starting to open up, we’re finding that there are shortages in that industry, but there are shortages in every industry. UNESCO estimates that schools were either fully closed or partially closed for more than 30 weeks between March of 2020 and May of 2021 affecting over 157 million students around the world. The consequences of this disruption in the early labor market experience of our youth can last for years and years to come. 

This month, World Youth Skills Day, pays tribute to the resiliency and the creativity of youth throughout this crisis, and in general.  This day was originally created by the UN General Assembly to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping our youth with the skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.  The day allowed for youth to engage in conversations with technical and vocational institutions, employers, and development partners. 

The dialogues are ever increasingly significantly for our youth to know the skills that are required in a world in transition towards a more sustainable model of development. Worldwide education and training are central to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and just as importantly to every business and business owner around the world. 

I am involved in a lot of recruitment with my clients. We might go through 2, 3, 4 group interviews, countless job postings and platforms for recruitment. Even end up going to recruitment agencies that are charging, you know, 15, 20, 25, 35, 40% of an annual salary to bring people in at almost any level of work, whether it’s a receptionist all the way through to a physicist.  

Labor in our world is in short supply. Couple that with the number of people who got laid off during COVID or who were off during COVID who sat back and just said, “hey, you know what? I don’t know that I want to work for an organization that doesn’t value or respect me.” 

Many people have started businesses on their own, which takes even more talent out of the labor market. It’s important that we as business owners and parents, are engaging in internships that allow for our youth to be exposed to the kind of experiences they need in the work world. And for us as business owners, to be able to evaluate talent that comes through our internship programs.  

I can tell you that our marketing coordinator, Luisa, who’s amazing, came to us through an internship recruitment program. She’s been with us now over a year and a half, almost two years. All of that said, yes, we went to celebrate the creativity, the resilience, the absolute brilliance of our youth, and bring that together with internship programs that allow us to benefit from one another, because we’ve had exposure to talent and talent has been exposed to us.  

If you’re a parent, get your child into an internship program. If you’re a business owner, reach out to the schools and universities in your area and recruit for an intern. One of The best ways that we can get talent and invest in our youth is through an internship programs.  

If you enjoyed this video, please like it, share it and subscribe to my YouTube channel. And if you’d like to find out more about how internships and or business coaching can benefit you and your business, please schedule a discovery call with me by using the calendar link below. 

https://mybiz.coach/jodycall 

That’s it for today, have a great week.