CBSE and UNICEF collaborate to equip school students with 21st century skills

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is collaborating with UNICEF and YuWaah to make 21^st Century skills accessible to school students.

YuWaah or Generation Unlimited is a platform supported by UNICEF aimed at bringing young people together with the private sector, governments, and international and local organisations to turn them into active and engaged citizens.

CBSE, UNICEF and YuWaah will work together on career guidance as well as enabling access and engagement of students in volunteering opportunities.

A statement of intent was signed for mutual agreement on the areas of collaboration and key milestones. The meeting also marked agreement on the roll-out of the Passport to Earning (P2E) initiative to upskill CBSE students with key 21st century skills mapped to the employability skills curriculum.

The P2E Initiative is part of a multi-stakeholder, global partnership between UNICEF, Generation Unlimited, Microsoft and Accenture. Capgemini is a key partner in enabling the scaling of this e-learning solution in India.

“The new National Education Policy (NEP) has laid a lot of stress on moving from rote learning to skilling. It also recommends instilling skills in students, right from the school level. Passport to Earning is one of the initiatives supported by the Board towards achieving this goal. In time, we may explore integrating P2E with the Skill Hubs Initiative of the Centre,” said Nidhi Chibber, chairperson, CBSE.

Yasumasa Kimura, UNICEF representative in India, said CBSE is one of the most important stakeholders to deliver 21st Century skills to young people.

“We are privileged to reaffirm our commitment to young people’s bright future with this national-level partnership. We look forward to working together to empower India’s young people to thrive in school, work, and life,” he said.