A UAE newspaper has said that today’s youth need to have strong foundational skills that allow them to reskill and change jobs whenever required.

"This is because changing industries and jobs is one of the most effective methods of reducing unemployment, which the International Labour Organisation estimates has reached at least 71 million today," said the Gulf News in an article on Tuesday.

"Today, knowledge is available at the click of a button or through a smartphone. So we need to equip our children with competencies and skills from a young age so that they can change as many jobs as they wish. And because jobs themselves are no longer guaranteed, the youth should be qualified enough to even become job-creating entrepreneurs," said Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education.

"Technical and vocational education offer a doorway to such employment opportunities, and we are working towards ensuring that at least 40 per cent of our high school graduates are armed with advanced technical skill sets," he added.

Al Hammadi was speaking at a panel discussion held as part of the WorldSkills Conference, a two-day event at which 30 ministers and industry leaders will discuss challenges in industry, education and labour supply. The conference is being organised alongside the WorldSkills 2017 competition, the largest international contest in vocational skills in which 1,300 participants from 60 countries are competing against one another.

The competition is being organised by the Abu Dhabi Centre for Technical and Vocational Education, Actvet, which aims to increase the number of Emiratis pursuing rewarding technical careers.

Ali Al Marzouqi, Chief Executive Officer of WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017, told Gulf News that only about 15 percent of students in Abu Dhabi currently go on to pursue careers in technical and vocational fields.

The WorldSkills conference ends later today, and the competition with 51 skills categories will wrap up tomorrow.