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Digital Skills Campaign

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Digital Skills Thematic Priority

ITU, together with ILO, is leading the Digital Skills Thematic Priority of Decent Jobs for Youth. The Digital Skills Thematic Plan takes a two-pronged approach, including in-country action and the joint ITU-ILO Digital Skills for Jobs Campaign. ITU contributed the Digital Skills Toolkit as a knowledge resource of Decent Jobs for Youth.  Available in six United Nations languages, the Toolkit supports stakeholders in building their digital skills development strategies.  ITU continuously raises visibility for the importance of the Digital Skills Thematic Priority and is supporting countries in their digital skills implementation efforts.   

Entity

United Nations system entity
  • Policy, advocacy and convening power

Partners

  • International Labour Organization (ILO)

    Policy, advocacy and convening power

Sustainable Development Goals & targets

  • 4.3 By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university
  • 4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
  • 5.5 Ensure women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life
  • 5.b Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
  • 8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value
  • 8.6 By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training
  • 17.17 Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships

Themes

  • Digital skills for youth

Achievement At Glance

The Digital Skills for Jobs Campaign has received commitments to train 15,787,321 young people in digital skills by 2030 – more than triple the initial target of 5 million young people. Commitments have been made by a range of stakeholders in partnership (e.g. the private sector, government entities, a development bank, NGOs, and UN agencies) in all geographic regions.

All commitments focus on job-ready, transferable digital skills: a combination of technical skills (basic, intermediate and advanced) and complementary soft skills (e.g. problem-solving and project management) that are aligned with local employer demand (e.g. data science, digital marketing, or web and app development). Many of the trainings include work experience (e.g. internships and project-based learning) and job placement services to maximize employment outcomes, and maintain close relationships with employers.

ITU continues to raise awareness of the importance of job-ready digital skills training for youth employment, and to incentivize more stakeholders to commit to training young people. In addition, ITU disseminates best practices and step-by-step guidance to develop an effective and inclusive national digital skills strategy through the Digital Skills Toolkit, developed as a knowledge product of Decent Jobs for Youth (and freely available in all six UN languages).

Description

ITU will provide support in implementing this campaign through advocacy at relevant international, regional and country events and conferences, social media and online outreach to incentivize a range of stakeholders to train in-and out-of-school youth, offer special training programmes for young women and young entrepreneurs, and train teachers so that educational programmes better prepare young people for the digital economy. ITU advocacy will also provide policy guidelines and tools to countries and related stakeholders, share best practices and online resources to support countries and stakeholders to develop their job-ready digital skills training programmes and policies. ITU and ILO will work together to foster collaboration between ICT, Labour and Education Ministers to ensure that Digital Skills for Youth Employment activities are conducted closely with national governments, the private sector, training providers, Academia, NGOs as well as other members of the UN family, including through regular meetings organized by the two UN agencies. Both agencies will raise awareness about the Digital Skills Campaign including through their online platforms, social media outreach as well as the flagship events, meetings and related national and global events in which they participate. The agencies will track related results including the numbers of stakeholders whose awareness was raised on policy guidelines, tools and best practices as well as the number of stakeholders making commitments to contribute to the Digital Skills Campaign.

http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Digital-Inclusion/Youth-and-Children/Pages/Digital-…

Deliverables and links to SDG targets

  • 5000000
    Young people trained in relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, ICT skills and soft skills
    8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value

    Youth trained with relevant digital and soft skills for employment and entrepreneurship in the digital economy

    BY:
    Dec 2030
  • 30
    Knowledge sharing or advocacy tactics on youth employment carried out, including events, campaigns and media items
    8.6 By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training

    Number of events in which advocacy is conducted to incentivize stakeholders to train youth with job ready digital skills through the Digital Skills Campaign and to raise awareness on the importance of job-ready digital skills training for youth employment.

    BY:
    Dec 2030
  • 1
    Knowledge products on youth employment developed
    8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value

    Toolkit to share good practices and guidelines to support governments to integrate digital skills and computational thinking in education

    BY:
    Dec 2030
  • 100
    Knowledge products on youth employment developed
    17.17 Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships

    Number of best practices on national digital skills strategies identified and shared through the ITU Digital Inclusion Newslog.

    BY:
    Dec 2030

Start

14-Jun-2017

End

31-Dec-2030

15787321

young people to benefit directly from this commitment

Target: 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-35

Primarily:
  • Young people in urban areas
  • Young people in rural areas
  • Young women
  • Young men
  • Graduates of second-level education and students in third-level education or beyond

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