World Youth Skills Day

The theme for UNESCO’s World Youth Skills Day 2025 is youth empowerment through digital skills and AI.

Supporting the educators

One of the barriers UNESCO has identified in the race to equip young people with future-ready skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is low educator readiness.

The SFC-funded College Development Network (CDN) has been encouraging colleges in Scotland to build their teaching staff’s knowledge and confidence around digital skills and AI. This CDN guest blog from Amy Butler, Accounting Lecturer & eLearning Development Officer at Glasgow Clyde College, explains how the College is addressing the opportunities and challenges of AI.

Speeding things up

The Digital Skills Pathfinder is one of seven pilot projects developed and funded through SFC’s Pathfinders Programme and was designed to accelerate progress in digital skills education.

Some of the big things it tackled along the way were increasing diversity and inclusion (another of the barriers identified by UNESCO), increasing the number of learners on digital courses, and strengthening connections with employers. Our short video describes the importance and achievements of this wonderfully collaborative project. It includes a contribution from Jack, a student at Borders College, who neatly describes the value of digital planning skills in modern joinery.

Scotland’s youth on the world skills stage

The Scottish Funding Council funds Scotland’s participation in Worldskills, a global skills movement of over 80 countries.

We’re incredibly proud of the achievements of young Scottish students and apprentices in the challenging environment of WorldSkills competitions at both a UK and international level.

Just last week we reported that 32 students from Scotland have been selected for this year’s WorldSkills UK finals in South Wales. Ten of our finalists will be competing in skills areas related to digital technology. At the same event last year 22 young Scots received medals or were highly commended at the awards ceremony.

And it doesn’t end there; at last September’s WorldSkills event in France, Scotland was represented by four competitors – Nathan Young, Finley Graham, Yasmin George and Danny McBean. Nathan and Finley went on to be awarded medallions for excellence – both in digital skills disciplines.