As digital technology rapidly transforms the workforce, a global digital skills gap is leaving many young people behind, especially girls and young women. UNICEF and committed private sector partners are equipping the next generation with essential digital, entrepreneurial and AI skills, empowering them to become innovators, leaders and changemakers.

Why digital skills are essential for today’s youth

As digital technology reshapes work, too many adolescents and young people are falling behind. Globally, 65 percent of teens lack the digital skills needed for 90 percent of today’s jobs, with the widest gaps in low- and middle-income countries and among girls. In many of these places, girls are 25 percent less likely than boys to access the knowledge needed for basic digital tasks. However, 86 percent of employers expect artificial intelligence (AI) and information processing technologies will transform their businesses by 2030. The theme of World Youth Skills Day 2025, “Youth empowerment through AI and digital skills,” highlights the acute need for an inclusive, ethical and empowering future for all youth.

UNICEF’s role in youth digital workforce readiness

UNICEF is a leader in digital skills programs that prepare young people to take part in a fast-changing economy and become the leaders their communities and the world need. This work is supported by strong private sector partners whose values, interests and corporate philanthropy aims align with UNICEF’s goal to create a better world for every child.

Private sector partners collaborate with UNICEF in many ways, supplying the knowledge, tools and finances that complement UNICEF’s strengths and accelerate young people’s path to economic security and opportunity. Trusted private sector partners allow UNICEF to plan long term and scale up programs more effectively. True collaboration and bold innovation can lead to powerful solutions, while UNICEF remains committed to promoting and upholding children’s rights as AI policies and practices evolve.

How public-private partnerships are transforming youth opportunities

Public-private sector collaboration can scale programs from concepts to solutions and achieve greater impact at an accelerated pace than either sector can by working alone.

Since 1999, fewer young people around the world have been working, even though the number of young people has grown. When youth are not working, studying or in training, their overall wellbeing suffers, diminishing their ability to contribute to future economic development and sociopolitical stability. To flip the script, more young people must be able to identify and access the skills to participate in a digital and green economy.

UNICEF and SAP piloted an innovative, scalable workforce readiness program for marginalized youth in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa that supports learning to earning pathways. The program leverages Generation Unlimited’s Youth Agency Marketplace (Yoma), a digital platform that connects young people with social impact tasks and learning to earning opportunities.

Scaling digital learning with Yoma: a youth-led innovation

The Yoma platform for youth was developed by young Africans seeking to address the stark reality that youth comprise 60 percent of all of Africa’s jobless. Since 2022, the SAP and UNICEF partnership has reached over 815,000 and helped improve the lives of 250,000 more through engagement with foundational and digital skills for youth. Overall, thanks to SAP and other partners’ support, Yoma has reached over 5 million engagements, which include registering more than 500,000 youth in over eight countries registered to access skilling, earning and impact opportunities through the Yoma ecosystem.

Muhammad Abdullahi, a health educator from Azare in Nigeria’s Bauchi State, uses his Yoma-acquired skills to inspire change around him. Bauchi State has a high number of children who are out of school. “Growing up in a community like Azare gave me a sense that we need to call on our young people to change the narrative of how our people survive here,” he says.

Muhammed used the money he earned scavenging plastic waste to pay for his university tuition. “I was afraid to graduate from university because I may not get a job, but after utilizing opportunities from Yoma, I am a proud health innovator and employer now.”

How Skills4Girls builds confidence, STEM access and leadership

Investment in girls’ education and skills-building forges a critical pathway to dignified work and economic security. About 1 billion girls and women worldwide lack the skills to keep up in today’s job market. For teenagers between 15 and 19, twice as many girls (1 in 4) are not working, learning or training compared to boys (1 in 10).

With support from several private sector partners, UNICEF’s Skills4Girls is closing the gap between the education girls traditionally receive and the digital skills to thrive in today’s economy. The Skills4Girls develops girls’ skills in STEM, digital technologies and social entrepreneurship areas and bolsters life skills like problem-solving, communication, teamwork and self-confidence.

For example, thanks to Sylvamo’s partnership with UNICEF, Skills4Girls expanded its work in countries like Bolivia and Brazil to give girls greater access to STEM education and leadership training, unlocking their individual potential and yielding greater societal benefits. With more than 640 million adolescent girls living on the planet today, programs like Skills4Girls play a crucial role in supporting their growth and potential.

In Bolivia, only 24 percent of students in technological and scientific careers are women. Skills4Girls is working to improve that reality and build a better future by teaching Bolivian girls to design and build robot prototypes.

15-year-old Mary Luz from La Paz, Bolivia, dreamed of seeing nearby Lake Titicaca clean – free from pollution and plastic waste. Driven by that vision, she created a prototype robotic boat that collects trash from rivers and lakes.

Mary’s invention is equipped with weather sensors, a live camera and an anemometer to measure wind speed. With support from UNICEF, her creativity and determination led her to represent Bolivia at the world’s largest robotics tournament.

Grassroots innovation, generational power

Partnerships are a means to an end, not the end itself. Each UNICEF and private sector initiative is a dynamic collaboration to lead young people somewhere better than where they started. And when young people are actively involved in crafting solutions, that goal is often reached faster.

Crocs, Inc., one of UNICEF’s newest skills partners, has committed to a 3-year partnership to support UNICEF’s UPSHIFT, a social accelerator that prepares young people between 10 and 24 to become community changemakers and innovators. UPSHIFT aligns with Crocs, Inc.’s Step Up To Greatness program values and goals to support building skills and confidence in young people to unlock their potential. UPSHIFT equips youth with professional and transferable skills through experiential learning. Participants identify challenges in their communities and devise local, innovative solutions to address them.

For example, in Ukraine, where approximately 1.5 million children are at risk of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, UPSHIFT has equipped young people to take action to address issues they care about the most. One solution is Teenage Island – created by teens for teens – on the social platform Discord. Teenage Island provides a safe virtual space for young people to connect over shared struggles. “You can get away from unwanted reality. For us, that is the war,” says Oleksii, 22, a Teenage Island member.

On Teenage Island, adolescents and young people can talk to a psychologist in group sessions, explore creative writing or dive into fantasy role-playing adventures. The team also launched a podcast series in which Sofia, a 17-year-old Ukrainian, openly discusses grief, mental health and war with a psychologist. Teenage Island exemplifies how partner funding doesn’t just support immediate needs but can strengthen systems and services for sustainable progress long after UNICEF’s interventions end.

Partnering for a brighter future

UNICEF’s public-private sector partnerships for youth can bring the tech, experience and talent, and critical investment needed to supercharge skills development. Together, UNICEF and partners create scalable, forward-thinking solutions that fast-track young people’s access to opportunity and build a brighter future for the next generation.

To learn more about partnering with UNICEF USA click here or email: ccsp@unicefusa.org

UNICEF does not endorse any company, brand, organization, product or service.

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