Liberia: Liberia Commemorates First World Youth Skills Day

The Ministry of Youth and Sports (MYS) and the Ministry of Education, joined other countries on Thursday to celebrate the first World Youth Skills Day 2023 through the Liberia business idea skills competition in Monrovia.

In 2014, the United Nations General Assembly declared July 15 of every year as World Youth Skills Day to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship.

The celebration, which took place at the theater of the Monrovia Vocational Training Center (MVTC), was held in partnership with the European Union, Sweden, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) under its Youth Rising Project.

It also brought together several TVET students from around the country to portray their TVET knowledge and business skills in recognition of the day.

The global theme for this year's celebration is, “Skilling teachers, trainers, and youth for a transformative future.” It also highlights the essential role that teachers, trainers, and other educators play in providing skills for youth to transition to the labor market and to actively engage in their communities and societies.

Additionally, the celebration put more emphasis on Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) to be well focused to meet the demand by reducing access barriers to the world of work, ensuring that skills gained are relevant, recognized, and certified, promoting green skills and practices, and offering skills development opportunities for youth who are not in education, employment, or training.

In commemoration of the day, Assistant Minister for TVET at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Millias Z. Sheriff, said the day was made possible under the EU-funded Youth Rising Project and the Swedish-funded Supporting Youth Project, an idea intended to recognize, identify, and project skillful people in Liberia that are major players within the vocational and technical training sectors of Liberia.

“On behalf of the project steering committee, we want to announce that we are pleased with the EU, Sweden, and UNIDO. We say thank you for being very proactive. We say thank you for living within the confines of the project design and meeting the required targets to move the Youth Rising Project Forward,” said Sheriff.

According to him, the government of Liberia is pleased with the EU and the Swedish governments because the mannerism for which UNIDO is threading is comfortable for them and something they appreciate a lot. 

He added, “We are also grateful for the additional 28 million to include other schools across the 15 counties connected to ensure every county across Liberia has a functioning TVET institution.” 

In her keynote address, Madam Christine N. Umutoni, UN Resident Coordinator to Liberia, highlighted the importance of investing in youth skills as a means of promoting employment and sustainable development.

She urged the young people of Liberia to utilize every opportunity or skill to make them productive citizens by contributing to the economic growth and development of their country.

Earlier, Stavros Papastavpou, UNIDO Officer in Charge, lauded the government, the EU, and Sweden for trusting them to implement the Youth Rising Project to provide young people with quality TVET training and an enabling environment where employment can be promoted here in Liberia.

For his part, EU Head of Governance, Jyrki Torni, said it was incredible for him to be in Liberia and see the tremendous efforts made to set up and equip all the TVET centers through UNIDO.

He reminded the TVET students that the world is revolving, and as such, they need to provide solutions and products that will meet the needs of everyone and what they intend to do in the future.

Torni also indicated that, at the moment, Liberia is not making use of the European market and hopes that what he is seeing now will meet the quality of their market and consumers.

“Always remember that there is competition and a responsibility on you to satisfy your consumers with quality products, just as in your community. Today is a very emotional day for me. After four years, I will be leaving Liberia, but I wish you all the best in your TVET education,” he said.

Torni also acknowledged the government of Liberia, through the Ministries of Education and Sports, for the partnership over the years. 

He said their partnership was not in vain but was all intended to ensure that the young people of Liberia have employable skills and can help move their country forward.