On World Children’s Day UNICEF stresses the importance equipping children with the Skills for Future

On World Children’s Day UNICEF highlights that children should be equipped with the right skills and competencies they need for personal fulfilment and development, employability, social inclusion and active citizenship.

Children’s lives are at a crossroads, they face a future of continued, rapid change influenced by climate change, disruptive technology and major demographic shifts, offering both promise and peril and throwing into question the basics of what childhood will be like. UNICEF’s flagship State of the World’s Children (SOWC) report released on World Children’s Day warns that the future of childhood hangs in the balance if urgent action is not taken to safeguard children’s rights in a changing world. 

Children need to be prepared to be able to cope with these challenges and have the skills for future like literacy, multilingualism, numerical, scientific and engineering skills, digital and technology-based competences, interpersonal skills, and the ability to adopt new competences, active citizenship, entrepreneurship, cultural awareness and expression.

“Today, we want to focus on Skills for Future as for children of today to become successful life-long learners, find productive work, take informed decisions that affect their lives and actively engage in their communities, they need to access inclusive, relevant learning and skills development opportunities”, said Jesper Moller, UNICEF Representative in Georgia. “UNICEF stands ready to support the Government in providing high-quality education, training, and lifelong learning for all and support educational staff in implementing competence-based teaching and learning approaches. On World Children’s Day, let’s remain committed to ensureevery child has skills for a better future”.

On World Children’s Day UNICEF also calls children to think about their future and have discussions with adults about the decisions that affect their lives. Adults are also encouraged to ask children what kind of future they would want to see and to consider their unique perspectives.

UNICEF have organized a series of discussions with children and young people throughout the year in different cities of Georgia to better understand their needs and thoughts about the issues that affect them.

UNICEF with the support of the Embassy of France is working to map, document and analyse what skills and competencies children in Georgia need to thrive in a complex, interconnected, and technology-driven environment.  The results of skills mapping exercise will show areas where further interventions are needed to support children to develop skills for life learning, employment, social development and active participation in the society.

World Children’s Day is UNICEF’s annual day of action for children, by children, marking the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 November. This year it is being commemorated under the theme, “Listen to the Future”, which encourages children and adults to have conversations about the future young people envision.