Are young people overskilled or underskilled?

Posted on 13 October 2017 by ILO Blog

Paul Comyn, ILO Senior Vocational Skills and Development Specialist and Drew Gardiner, Youth Employment Specialist

This week, as we prepare ILO’s participation in the World Skills Competition 2017, taking place in Abu Dhabi, UAE from 15-18 October, we are left to reflect on a major theme which is troubling governments, employers, workers and young people across the globe – the so called skills mismatch.

This year’s World Skills Competition features 1,300 competitors, 100,000 visitors and 51 skills. The competition will cover a diverse range of vocational categories including mechatronics, information network cabling, floor tiling, patisserie, and plumbing just to name a few.

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4 things you should know about NEETs

Posted on 6 February 2015 by ILO Blog

Sara Elder, CTA Work4Youth Project, Youth Employment Unit

If you’re as baffled as I am by the speed at which the acronym NEETs has become standard jargon in the media, academia and international organisations, please take a moment to join me for a brief examination of what NEETs actually means. Read the technical brief

Who are NEETs? Strictly speaking, NEETs are young people who are “Neither in Employment nor in Education or Training”. Why is everybody talking about them? Perhaps because the idea of NEETs is vague enough to allow for all-encompassing interpretations of the challenges facing young people. NEETs has become shorthand for exclusion, marginalization, joblessness and discouragement. It’s even been given as evidence for a “jobless generation”, which—let’s face it—makes a great headline.

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How can we create decent jobs in the digital age?

Posted on 20 January 2015 by ILO Blog

Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization

Could a robot replace your job? Fears about technology’s impact on the labour market are nothing new. Way back before the International Labour Organization (ILO) came into being in 1919, the Luddites were one group of early-19th century English workers who destroyed the labour-saving textile machines which were replacing their jobs.

The anxiety that machines could kill millions of jobs in our globalized workplaces is real – and it comes at a time when the world economy is already facing a major employment crisis. The jobs gap in G20 countries stands at about 54 million and could expand to over 60 million by 2018 unless current growth trends improve.

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