World Academy and National Institute Join Forces for World Youth Skills Day 2024

New Delhi: July 16, 2024
Recognising the important role of youth in nation building and in accelerating economic growth on the pathways of sustainable development, fostering an era of peace and harmony around the globe, the World Youth Skills Day was organised today, July 15 th, 2024, at India International Centre by the World Academy of Higher Education and Development, W-AHEAD jointly with National Institute of Skilling. Prof Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman NAAC and NBA graced the occasion as the Chief Guest at the Round Table on “Skilling Youth for Viksit Bharat@2047. Prof TG Sitharam, Chairman AICTE, Dr (Mrs) Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General of AIU, Er Pradeep Chaturvedi, Chairman (Delhi section) of Indian National Academy of Engineering, IANE were the Distinguished Giests of Honour. Prof PR Trivedi, Executive Chairman of W- AHEAD and Founder of NIS and IIEE, a number of Vice Chancellors, Principals of the Colleges of Delhi University and Principals of Schools of Delhi were present at the function besides celebrated young entrepreneurs of the new age.

 Welcoming the distinguished gathering of our luminaries and young entrepreneurs present on the occasion, Prof PB Sharma, President W-AHEAD highlighted the importance of the day and invited education providers, industry and corporate to join hands in empowering youth with the Skills and a Mindset tuned to peace, harmony, progress and prosperity, while at the same time assuring highest levels of sustainability in all aspects of human endeavours. In a rapidly evolving world shaped and powered by the innovative genius of inspired and enterprising minds who are engaged in developing pathbreaking scientific solutions and game changing technology innovations, we are in Great Times of Great Opportunities here in India as the nation is making a great progress on economic fronts and that the whole world is beaming its eyes on India, said Prof Sharma.

 The World Academy of Higher Education and Development, World-AHEAD, is a global body of professionals from the world of learning and the world of industries and corporate, deeply devoted to serve as a catalyst for excellence in higher education and development- promoting equity, inclusivity, and sustainability. Through cutting-edge research, innovative teaching methodologies, Skilling for Youth and impactful outreach initiatives, World- AHEAD seeks to empower individuals, institutions, and communities to thrive in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. Grounded in the principles of integrity, diversity, and collaboration, W-AHEAD is committed to fostering a culture of lifelong learning, nurturing agile skill sets, critical inquiry, and social responsibility and commitment to environmental sustainability, said Prof. Sharma, himself an eminent academician, founder Vice Chancellor of DTU and the past President of Association of Indian Universities, AIU, currently Vice Chancellor of Amity University.

 The Celebration of the World Youth Skills Day 2024 was also marked by recognition of outstanding young entrepreneurs who dared to make a great difference to the world community and by their eminence, both at the individual and at the organisational levels, made Mother India proud. Such highly successful young entrepreneurs of eminence were awarded Academy Entrepreneurship Excellence Awards by our luminaries present on the occasion.

 Ms Sarita Ahlawat and Mr Tanmay Bunkar Co-founders of Botlab at IIT Delhi who achieved the pioneering success in advancing in the realm of drone technology and pioneering the automation of intelligent unmanned aerial vehicles in India, Mr Anil Shah, Founder and MD of MRCC, USA whose visionary insights and transformative approach has made MRCC to reach to every continent and provide innovative technology solution to various sectors including education, Mr Sanjay Meena, Cofounder of College Dunia who recognised a great responsibility to support the students and the educational institutions in India with education portal offering IT services and solutions to building education excellence, Mr Aurbind Sharma, Founder and CEO of Ted Consulting, a visionary technologists pioneering cutting edge innovations and driving top line growth, Rtn Sandeep Saxena, CEO of BlitzIndia Education Media, who under the visionary leadership of Dr Deepak Dwivedi made BlitzIndia to register its eminent presence worldwide and pioneered several education media initiatives, Mr Ankit Agrawal, Cofounder and CEO of Innovatiview, Mr Aakash Sinha, Founder of Omnipreent Robotics, Shri Vikas Pandey, Founder of Insightful plc, Mr Mayank Shekher, Founder Legal Bites, New Delhi and Mr Aadeesh Sharma, Dean’s Scholar pursuing CSE at ASU Phoenix, USA were awarded “Academy Entrepreneurship Excellence Award- 2024” at the glittering ceremony at the World Youth Skills Day today.

 The theme for World Youth Skills Day 2024 this year has been chosen by UNESCO as “Youth Skills for Peace and Development. It highlights the crucial role that young people play in peace building and conflict resolution efforts. “The world faces a multitude of challenges today, many of which affect the youth. Violent conflicts disrupting education and stability, a polarized online environment fostering negativity, and persistent economic inequality limits opportunities. These issues threaten not only individual futures but also the overall stability of societies. It is crucial to equip youth with the necessary skills for fostering a culture of peace, nurturing responsible global citizens, and promoting sustainable development to build a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future for all” says the UNESCO its clarion call for the global community.

 In his Keynote Address Prof Anil Sahasrabudhe said “Several initiatives of Government of India are aimed at bridging the skill gap and to empower the youth to meet the current and future challenges of emerging technologies and to power industrial growth for a self-reliant developed Bharat. We are revamping the NAAC and the NBA Accreditation to provide a major focus on skilling for sustainability and technology innovations”.

 Prof TG Sitharam, Chairman AICTE in his inspiring address to the educators and the young entrepreneurs said “The canvas of professional education in India is currently being redesigned to create greater spaces for learning outside the classroom and in collaborative environment with the industry. The focus hence on shall be on interdisciplinary and holistic development of students and on building enterprising and innovative minds of graduates from Engineering and Technology programs”.

 Reimagining Higher Education and Skill Development for building a bright and blissful future is the need of the hour opined the eminent panellists at the Round Table on Skilling for Viksit Bharat@2047.

 Focusing on the Youth, especially the young people below the age of 25 years, comprising of almost 42 percent of the world population, of which 660 million plus young people below the age of 25 years are here in India, we are conscious of the fact that the future of work is rapidly changing. In this scenario “We need to reimagine education and skill development that shall create zero unemployment, creating both the enterprising minds as well as capable and tech-savvy professionals to meet the growing requirement of skill sets for the new and emerging technologies, revolutionised by the advent of AI and smart automation of workplaces both in the manufacturing as well as the service sector” opined the eminent panel comprising of Vice Chancellors of universities and Principals of colleges and schools in Delhi.

 As India prepares to shape itself as a front runner in the community of nations and continue to advance on trajectories of growth and development as the world’s fastest growing economy, it needs to focus on ensuring continuous supply of skilled manpower as per the needs of the knowledge intensive, technology-savvy work environment for the industries and for the fast-growing service sector. For economy to continue to grow faster than any other, besides economic stimulus provided by physical infrastructure push, increased urbanisation and investment in new emerging technology areas such as semiconductor technology, new age manufacturing, advancement  and applications of Augmented Intelligence (AI, as I have often called Artificial Intelligence for humans and Artificial Intelligence for machines and robots), foreign direct investment and above all the positive environment for ease of doing business that the Government of India has facilitated through its structural reforms, would require massive investment in Knowledge and Skill Infrastructure to shape it’s 700 million young people below the age of 25 years into the world’s largest talent powerhouse  of innovative and enterprising India, that the Viksit Bharat @2047 Vision entails to make our country a prosperous, happy and healthy nation on planet Mother Earth was the voice of eminent panel today.

 The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 clearly outlines that 6 in every 10 workers will require retraining before 2027, with analytical and creative thinking, as well as utilizing AI and big data topping the list of priorities for skills training. By 2025, 85 million jobs could be replaced due to changes in how work is divided between humans and machines. However, the report also expects 97 million new jobs to emerge that will better fit the evolving roles of humans, machines, and algorithms. As technology becomes more prevalent, the skills needed for jobs will shift. About 40% of essential skills in current roles are expected to change by 2025, and half of all employees will require retraining, putting a great responsibility on the shoulders of education and skill providers around the world.

 The India Skills Report 2024 has also highlighted the growing importance of AI skills for India’s future workforce. The report indicates a significant gap between the demand and supply of AI professionals, with a projected demand of 1 million AI skilled professionals by 2026 and this requirement shall further grow to staggering figures as the Indian economy grows leaps and bounds in the next two decades, christened as “India decades” 2024- 2034 and 2035- 2045.

 This further underscores the need for skilling initiatives focused on artificial intelligence, robotics, and data science for the young students currentlt at colleges and universities in India and also reskilling the current work force in Industry and corporate and in service sectors of the economy, voiced the eminent But make no mistake that technology and work skills alone would form only a part of the success story, a lot will depend on our success to mentor the youth of our country with life skills of peace and sustainable development, skills of living in peaceful existence and combining conviction and capabilities to serve the cause of environmental sustainability and world peace, was a call for action from the eminent panel.

 The educational institutions, both in public and the private sector should join hands to create a robust skilling ecosystem that empowers youth as the cocreators of a bright and blissful future. This will involve revamping educational curricula to focus on practical application of knowledge, providing industry-relevant apprenticeship programs, and encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship among our youth while sensitising them about their responsibility to live and work for creating and sustaining a peaceful and compassionate human society.

 The World academy of Higher Education and Development together with IIEE and NIS is fully committed to work with Educational Institutions, Industry. Corporate, Community and the Government with a Panchhamrut approach to empower India, the Bharat and world at large in skilling the Youth of the World for cocreating a bright and blissful future for the global humanity, said Prof Priyaranjan Trivedi, Executive Chairman of W-AHEAD and Founder NIS while co-chairing with Prof PB Sharma, the panel on “Skilling for Viksit Bharat@2047”.

 The eminent panel comprised of Prof RK Khandal, Chancellor SDGT University, Dr Markandey Rai, formerly with UN Habitat and presently the Chairman, Global Peace Foundation – India and the National Chancellor, UN affiliated IAEWP USA, Prof Raj Nehru, Vice Chancellor of Vishvakarma University Haryana, Prof Dhananjay Joshi, Vice Chancellor, Delhi Teachers University, Dr Amita Dev, Vice Chancellor, IGDTUW, Prof Furqan Qamar, Former Secretary General AIU, Dr Sunil Abrol, Sr Advisor World Academy of Productivity Sciences, Sri Prabhakar Singh, Former DG, CPWD, Shri Mangu Singh, Former MD, Delhi Metro, Prof SK Garg, Former Pro VC DTU and Dr MP Gupta, Professor and Former Dean, IIT Delhi among others.