Virtual conference on skills for a resilient youth: virtual conference report

World Youth Skills Day 2020 took place in a challenging context. Prior to the pandemic, young people aged 15-24 were two to three times more likely than adults to be un- or under-employed and often faced a prolonged school-to-work transition period. In post-[Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 societies, as young people seek employment and are called upon to contribute to the recovery effort, they will need to be equipped with the relevant skills for today as well as the competencies to successfully manage evolving challenges and adapt to future disruptions. The virtual conference on Skills for a Resilient Youth was held from 6-14 July 2020. It was open to all members of the UNESCO-UNEVOC [technical and vocational education and training] TVET Forum, an online community with more than 6500 members. The conference sought to gather knowledge, insights, experiences and practices from the international TVET community to understand how the pandemic is affecting youth and how TVET teachers, institutions and government agencies are responding.

The following topics were opened for discussion during the virtual conference: Thread 1: Context - implications of the pandemic on youth skills development; Thread 2: TVET institutions - good practices in distance learning in no-, low- and high-tech scenarios; Thread 3: Labour market - implications of the pandemic on jobs and future skills development; Thread 4: Young people - perspectives on their hopes and fears going forward; Thread 5: TVET systems - system-wide responses to the impact of the pandemic.

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