Commemorating World Youth Skills Day: Youth outline contributions in peace building, sustainable development.

File photo: Youths receiving skills in electricity

Young Cameroonians acquiring different skills have recounted their efforts and contributions in peace building and sustainable development in the society through trainings, skill acquisition programmes and hard work.



The youth made the declarations in interviews with the national station of Cameroon Radio Television, CRTV. It was within the framework of the commemoration of the 2024 World Youth Skills Day. The Day is being celebrated under the theme: “Youth skills for peace building and development”.

Celebrated every July 15, this year’s edition emphasises on the role young Cameroonians play in peace building and conflict resolution. The day focuses on empowering young people through skills, development and employment.  

World Youth Skills Day is to promote youth skill development to tackle unemployment and underemployment and also to encourage investment in training and education.

Aimed to better integrate youth into the work force, the theme of this year’s celebration highlights the role of youth in peace building and sustainable development.

Some of the youth, talking about their contributions to peace in the society, acknowledged that they are getting themselves trained in several skillful domains which they use as an opportunity to prevent them from getting into crimes, in order to promote peace.

Since the beginning of the summer holidays, many youth are keeping themselves busy learning one trade or the other. 

Tata Noella, a student, who is learning hairdressing this holiday, said: “As the say idleness is the devil’s workshop, I decided to learn hair dressing during this holidays. I thought of doing this to prepare myself for the contemporary society which is getting more and more diverse”.

Stressing on the role she can play in contributing to peace in the society, Tata said with the skills she acquires every holiday from the hairdressing, by the time she is done with school, she believes she will be able to share her knowledge with other youth in the upcoming years. 

Another student and youth, Fotso Elvera, said it has always been her passion to learn electricity, so putting it now in practice gives her the zeal to continue pushing hard. 

“I am so happy practicing during the holiday; it gives me knowledge and the urge to want to learn more when I go back to school,” she said.

Some youth hold that the educational system does not permit them to acquire skills and develop competence which can render them financial autonomous

“The educational system is one that does not really give room for some of us to learn something out of school. The school system is so tight unless you want to take off time from school,” one of them said.

Other youth added that they are happy to receive skillful training every holiday as it is their passion to learn one or two useful skills which can help them in the future to become entrepreneurs. 

The commemoration of World Youth Skills Day came a few days after the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Civic Education launched a scholarship training programme to train 200 youth in domains such as computer, artificial intelligence and data science.

 

About World Youth Skill Day 

World Youth Skills Day is celebrated worldwide to encourage the governments and organisations to invest in training, educating and bringing up initiatives that will enhance the skills of young people in the society.

First celebrated in the United Nations in November 2014, it emphasises on the significance of fostering personal development and economic empowerment.

 

 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3172 of Thursday July 18, 2024

 

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