We’re Celebrating UNICEF World Youth Skills Day 2020

Today (July 15^th 2020) marks UNESCO World Youth Skills Day.

Now in its fifth year, the event promotes and celebrate the importance of providing youth around the world with the necessary skills to find meaningful employment.

At St John Ambulance Cymru, we're empowering our young people with a range of lifesaving and life skills aiding their own development and allowing them to make a real difference in their local community.

From the age of five to 25, our youth programmes include Badgers (ages 5-10), and Cadets (10-18) as well as programmes for young adults.

At each stage, young people are learning vital first aid skills, from CPR and dealing with choking, to treating head injuries and cardiac arrests.

On top of their first aid training, we're encouraging Badgers and Cadets helping developing additional skills and helping boost their social skills and confidence. Subjects include everything from photography and fire prevention to sport and continuing professional development.

Young adults are also supported through their Duke of Edinburgh Award and often get opportunities to experience new cultures on trips overseas while also developing their personal and professional skills.

Since 2016, there has been a global increase in the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET). In 2021 its predicted the worldwide figure will rise to around 273 million individuals.

While people under 25 were three times more likely to be unemployed as adults prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been adversely affected by the crisis, with more than one in six young people currently out of work.

Through affordable quality Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), UNESCO hopes to equip young people across the globe with the skills required to find work.

The theme of this year’s World Youth Skills Day is “Skills for a Resilient Youth”.

For World Youth Skills Day we're sharing some of our Badgers and Cadet videos demonstrating some of the important first aid skills they're learning and developing.