Why
The digital economy is rapidly transforming the employment landscape across industries, including financial services, health, entertainment, transportation and of course, information and communication technologies (ICT). Millions of jobs requiring advanced digital skills will be created in the coming decade, but many countries are projecting a shortfall of skilled workers to fill these jobs. While young people are often considered “digital natives”, the reality is that the majority do not possess job-relevant digital skills. In particular, jobs requiring coding and other advanced ICT skills are going unfilled.
HOW
The growth potential of the digital economy presents an opportunity for tackling the youth employment challenge. In June 2017, the ILO and the ITU launched a campaign to bridge the current skills gap. The goal is to equip five million young people with digital skills – both basic and advanced – by 2030. This will be achieved by mainstreaming digital skills into school curricula, establishing comprehensive on-the-job training systems and mobilizing job creators in the public and private sector to employ young people in digital-centric jobs. There will also be a strong focus on fostering youth-led digital entrepreneurship.
WHO
The ILO and the ITU are committed to leading on this thematic priority. Decent Jobs for Youth brings together a growing number of partners who are committed to identifying and scaling up effective strategies for equipping young people with digital skills.
Boosting Decent Employment for Africa’s Youth
Boosting Decent Employment for Africa’s Youth is a three-year partnership by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Dutch Knowledge Platform on Inclusive Development Policies (INCLUDE), and the International Labour Organization (ILO). It is a research initiative that aims to generate rigorous evidence on soft skills, digital jobs and work-based learning to boost decent jobs for youth. Led by IDRC, a first cohort of eight research projects is underway in nine countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative, which involves more than 65 multidisciplinary researchers, focuses on generating new evidence, sharing knowledge and advocating for evidence-informed policy-making and programming.
Create and Implement entrepreneurship
The ICSB Academy provides students with a full immersion experience in the making of a new entrepreneurial venture, while exposing them to the latest developments in entrepreneurship science under the mentorship of a global team of successful entrepreneurship experts (including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, business experts, and faculty).