To foster the talent of our youth, it is important to ensure a sustainable future of our youth with skills necessary. The ongoing situation of COVID-19 crisis threatens the continuity of global skill development. According to UNESCO, about 70 percent of the world's students are unable to attend educational institutions. To remedy this situation by responding to the unfolding economic crisis and to explore the opportunities for the youth of technical and vocational education and training (TVET), Bangladesh Open Source Network is proud to recognize World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) on 15 July 2020.

As the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures have led to the worldwide closure of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, World Youth Skills Day 2020 will take place to recognize the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship, and to highlight the crucial role of skilled youth in addressing current and future global challenges.

Since 2017, the number of unemployed youths has been increasing all over the world. According to the Bangladesh Labor Force Survey 2016-17, one out of every four young people in the country (27.39%) is not involved in work, education or training. Of the 2.2 million boys and girls who enter the job market every year, a large number are young people and most of them have no skills. Although the target was to create 39 lakh jobs in the same year, half of them (18 lakh 60 thousand) jobs have been created. However, 60% of the population of the country is youth and 24 million of them are the biggest force in our job market. In the view of this pandemic crisis, the theme for this year's World Youth Skills Day has been set “Skills for a Resilient Youth”.

Following this, Bangladesh Open Source Network (BDOSN) and Enabling Sustainable Development Goals of Bangladesh for 2030 (ESDG4BD) project are jointly organizing an online event on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day. In addition to the online inter-polytechnic programming competition, there will also be TVET success story sessions, online webinars with experts on global opportunities for TVET graduates, and boot camps with TVET students. This inter-polytechnic programming competition has been organized for the students of technical schools and colleges, technical colleges, and polytechnic institutes across the country. To take part in this competition, the first one has to go to the link https://bit.ly/ippc2020 and register. The first 200 students will be allowed to register on a first-come-first-served basis. The mock competition will be held on July 11 and the national competition will be held on July 14. The top three contestants in the national competition will be awarded a total of BDT 15,000. The first prize will be BDT 8,000, second prize BDT 5,000, and third prize BDT 3,000. The first 30 people will be given this opportunity on a first come first served basis at the boot camp. The registration process for participating in this Bootcamp will begin soon.