Youth and Sustainability

The WorldSkills Lyon 2024 Organizing Committee places sustainability and environmental responsibility at the heart of the Competition’s identity and actions. We also believe that young people are the ones who shape our future and it is for them, and with them, that we are working towards the creation of a more sustainable and inclusive Competition model. 

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that all people under the age of 18 have the right to take part in the decision-making processes that impact them. Just like us at WorldSkills, global organizations like the United Nations or UNICEF place young people at the centre of global issues.  

In July this year, to celebrate World Youth Skills Day, WorldSkills International and UNESCO-UNEVOC (the United Nations International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training) came together in an event named ‘Empowering Youth for a Sustainable Future,’ to spotlight the positive impact of youth skills development, and “enhance skills development worldwide, particularly in the context of the global transition towards sustainable development.” 

Although significant shifts can only occur when governments and corporations change their policies and behaviors, all individuals, and especially younger generations, also possess the capacity to effect change, whether through minor actions or larger undertakings. 

Among the skills represented at WorldSkills Lyon 2024, three green skills are directly linked to water conservation, respect for natural resources, and biodiversity: Landscape Gardening, Water Technology, and Renewable Energy.  

Samuel Torikian, Sustainability Project Manager at WorldSkills Lyon 2024 is convinced that the Competition will be a great opportunity for the advancement of sustainable practices that will benefit everyone:  

“Through our exchanges with our stakeholders, we can see that expectations in terms of environmental protection are increasingly high among people of all generations. The youth, in particular, plays an essential role in the development of new business practices around the world, and there is a real desire to integrate environmental issues into everyone’s activities and try to address them. WorldSkills Lyon 2024 is aware of the level of expectations among young people, and we are keen to align ourselves with them. It’s also for this reason that the Organizing Committee is dedicated to addressing six issues (established in its sustainable development policy), two of which are directly linked to environmental issues: 

• Circular economy, to reduce waste production by anticipating the second life of material resources and recovering residual waste.
• Carbon footprint, energy, and water, with the aim of directly and indirectly assessing and reducing our CO2 footprint, as well as optimizing the consumption of energy and water in our activities.”