As the world marks the 10th anniversary of World Youth Skills Day on 15 July, UNESCO is launching a pioneering digital platform to address the urgent skills gap among young people worldwide. The new Skills for the Future Platform, developed with support from KPMG International, builds on the success of UNESCO’s Global Skills Academy (GSA) to create a centralized ecosystem for youth empowerment.
This year’s World Youth Skills Day theme, “Youth empowerment through AI and digital skills,” underscores the critical role of technology in shaping the future of work. UNESCO is celebrating World Youth Skills Day during an event hosted by the Learning Planet Institute in Paris. The Day is also marked by an event held at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
“To empower youth in the AI era, education must be inclusive, future-ready and responsive to labour market needs. This means modernizing curriculum to include digital, green and soft skills and building stronger partnerships with employers to create more work-based learning opportunities,” said Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education. “Education isn’t just about adapting to change — it’s about giving young people the power to shape it.”
A growing crisis: millions of youth left behind
The global skills crisis is deepening as technological change accelerates. Currently, 450 million young people worldwide lack adequate skills to succeed in the labour market. One in five individuals aged 15-34 remain disengaged from formal pathways to skill development.
This skills gap disproportionately affects vulnerable groups: in low-income countries, 90% of girls and young women remain offline, and only 22% of AI professionals globally are women, underscoring significant gender disparities in digital fields.
In addition, nearly 40% of today’s skillsets no longer match job market needs and 22% of jobs are expected to transform by 2030 due to technological disruption, according to the World Economic Forum.
Closing these gaps is therefore critical, not only for the future of young people but also for global economic prosperity. The World Bank estimates that addressing the skills divide of disengaged youth could unlock US$ 6.5 trillion in economic value over the next seven years.
UNESCO’s commitment to inclusive, future-ready education
In response to these urgent challenges, UNESCO launched the Global Skills Academy in 2020 as part of the Global Education Coalition, and UNESCO’s COVID-19 response. Celebrating its five-year anniversary, it has been a lifeline for millions. With over 230 TVET institutions in 150 countries, the GSA has — via UNESCO and the UNEVOC Network — supported 1.2 million learners with training in digital and green skills, tailored to local needs.
Offering free online courses in AI, coding, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, and career development, the Academy empowered young people — especially women — with the skills and ethics to lead in a digital future.
Introducing the Skills for the Future Platform
The new Skills for the Future Platform allows private sector partners, and civil society organizations to showcase their skills initiatives and join a global community building youth skills for improved employability, economic empowerment and resilience.
Key features of the platform:
Initiatives dashboard: Tracks and showcases organizational efforts in youth skilling, TVET programmes, and employability.
Data aggregation: Combines partner data to monitor progress toward SDG 4 and other goals, identifying gaps and collaboration opportunities.
Commitment framework: Offers guiding principles, toolkits, and resources to help organizations design, commit to, and measure impactful youth development initiatives.
“The Global Skills Academy is a unique platform to advance inclusive partnerships and unlock the full potential of skills for the future. At UNESCO, we are committed to working with KPMG and other GSA partners to drive this agenda forward, together,” said Borhene Chakroun, Director of the Division for Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems at UNESCO.
The Skills for the Future Initiatives dashboard leverages existing reporting mechanisms such as corporate social responsibility and ESG reports to simplify data sharing. Both capturing the important work already being done and helping drive new bold actions for the future, the dashboard highlights the work partners are doing while also feeding strategic insights, and signposting opportunities for collaboration to drive coordinated action and ensure no young person is left behind.
As a people first business, at KPMG we know how critical it is to enable young people to develop skills that will shape their futures and drive inclusive growth. This new platform showcases the important contributions many businesses are making, and will enable those focused on education and skills to collaborate more effectively. We’re proud to be part of this important initiative.
Roisin Murphy
Partner and Head of Global Sustainability at KMPG
UNESCO’s Global Skills Academy will continue to expand partnerships, introduce new credentials aligned with labour market demands, and foster an inclusive ecosystem that overcomes barriers of geography, gender, and socioeconomic status.
New Global Skills Tracker
UNESCO is also launching the Global Skills Tracker that provides insights into the skills landscape across various dimensions, such as countries, industries and occupations. It helps identify trends in skills demands, supports strategic decision-making in skills development and offers interactive dashboards for exploring skills data. The countries currently covered are Argentina, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Idaho/United States of America, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria and the Philippines.
Original article from UNESCO
