United Nations Transforming Education Pre-Summit

Side-meeting

21^st Century Skills Development in the Mediterranean: A “Whole Systems Approach” to Promote Skills Recognition and Mobility
By invitation

The Policy Center for the New South, the Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI)/UNOPS, the Qatar Foundation and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) are pleased to organize a side-meeting in the framework of United Nations “Transforming Education” Pre-Summit.

The side meeting will be held under the theme “21st Century Skills Development in the Mediterranean: A ‘Whole Systems Approach’ to Promote Skills Recognition and Mobility” and will take place on June 30, 2022 at 13h (GMT+2) in Paris.

In a global economic context where the changes brought about by the green and digital transitions are creating new opportunities, there are also many uncertainties regarding the jobs of the future and the skills that will be needed for these new jobs.

The current situation is already worrying, especially in the Mediterranean region, since young people are graduating without having acquired the right mix of knowledge and skills that could allow them to integrate properly into changing labor markets. This was not the case some decades ago, when having an academic qualification was enough to ensure privileged access to more options to the job market. Increasingly, this is not the case, with access to jobs requiring more and more an active role by universities, governments, and industry - creating a paradoxically increasing relationship between having a university degree and being unemployed.

This is a wicked problem with many dimensions such as the number of graduates increasing when compared to the absorption capacity of the economies, and a gap between competences and skills offered by education and those demanded by enterprises. These factors, among others, have resulted in structural youth under- and unemployment rates, with extremely high rates in the MENA region - at around 26%, the highest in the world - especially amongst graduates and researchers, affecting those that would be best placed to contribute to the economic growth of Mediterranean countries. Moreover, the rate of young people aged between 15 to 24 in NEET situations (Not in Employment, Education or Training) is very high throughout the region (at around 30% in Morocco for example).

It is thus essential to invest massively in education by focusing on skills development, including skills for work through stronger links between the labor markets (private sector) and the tertiary education system (including vocational training) and the so-called 21st century skills - such as socio-emotional skills, problem solving, teamwork, empathy, compassion, mutual and intercultural understanding. Indeed, these skills allow not only for a better integration into labor markets and a greater ability to adapt to current and future changes, but also to strengthen the citizenship of individuals through a greater ability to participate in public life.

The role of mobility - of individuals, knowledge and skills - in the development of these key skills no longer needs to be demonstrated. Besides, in a rights-based approach, it’s important to foster recognition of skills pathways outside the formal education system. It is now time to make concrete proposals for political decision-makers to promote mobility in tertiary education to enhance youth employability. The session will provide concrete recommendations from the tertiary education institutions, including vocational training.