UNESCO and Pix partner up to develop digital skills among 20,000 young trainees

The economic recession and school lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have put young people around the world in particularly precarious situations, both halting their skills development and employment opportunities. As digital skills are becoming increasingly essential to accessing the labour market, Pix has been chosen by UNESCO to support young trainees in the South Mediterranean region, where youth unemployment was already high prior to the pandemic. About 20,000 young trainees across 8 countries in the region will benefit from this collaboration and have the opportunity to acquire the necessary digital skills.

Funded by the European Union, UNESCO launched the project Youth Employment in the Mediterranean project (YEM) in 2018 to tackle the challenges of high youth unemployment in the South Mediterranean region through improved skills anticipation  and assessment systems, and improved quality and relevance of technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

Pix is a crucial asset to enhance the project’s component on ‘Mainstreaming digital skills in TVET programmes’, which is needed more today than ever to ensure the resilience of young people in a disrupted economy and job market.

Speaking “digital”, our global and common language to enter the job market

The “digital language” is truly universal. Codified and standardised, it is an inherent part of jobs across all fields and sectors, everywhere in the world. For young people leaving the school system, speaking this “digital language" is key today to finding a job or for any entrepreneurial project to succeed. Digital literacy, just like more traditional forms of literacy, is a necessity in a world that is constantly and rapidly evolving.

“Before 2020, digital literacy was already key for the future of our societies and economies. From this year on, it has become an urgent matter, to create social links and keep in touch with your family, to keep the business activity going or to access to employment for young people, and even more so in the countries of the Mediterranean region. Digital skills are essentially "universal". Of course, uses, tools, rules and knowledge may be specific to local contexts, but there is a common global foundation which, like a living language, is constantly evolving with the contributions of its “speakers”. If Pix is a French initiative, we are proud to take part in the UNESCO YEM project and co-construct with the Mediterranean countries. Pix will be evolving towards an educational common good, shared by a community of countries,” explains Benjamin Marteau, Director of Pix.

UNESCO, following a study conducted among several stakeholders, has deemed Pix the most adaptable digital skills assessment platform on the international stage, and therefore in a position to meet the needs of the YEM project and the urgency of developing digital skills in its beneficiary countries.

“Today, acquiring digital skills is crucial for employment. A preliminary background study conducted in the YEM countries shows that TVET curricula in the countries are not adequately equipped to impart basic and job specific digital skills to graduates, and consultations and discussions with national stakeholders during regional workshops also reflected the need to strengthen national capacities to evaluate and develop basic and job specific digital skills among TVET students to strengthen their readiness to enter the job market. In order to address this gap, UNESCO chose to initiate a partnership with Pix, since it is engineered based on DigComp, the European digital skills reference framework, and the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) study endorsed the platform as one of the most internationally adaptable digital skills assessment platforms. Based on these points, we trust that the collaboration will be beneficial and will boost digital skills acquirements and monitoring in the participating countries in the YEM project”, says Borhene Chakroun, Director of the Division for Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems at the Education Sector in UNESCO, France.

How will Pix be implemented within the YEM project?

Fun and interactive tests

On the platform pix.org, available in French and English, every trainee will be able to test their digital skills through fun and interactive tests adapted to their level. They will also be able to identify their strengths and where they can improve across 16 competences, divided in 5 competence areas: Information and data, Communication and collaboration, Content creation, Protection and security, Digital environment.

A customised and adapted implementation

Within the framework of the YEM project, Pix and UNESCO work together with the beneficiary countries since early 2021 to help them make the best use of the Pix platform according to their national TVET strategies, by designing implementation plans and adapting pedagogical scenarios. In each country, occupation-specific Pix tests are co-constructed with education and training stakeholders and representatives of the economic sectors, with the aim to develop the most relevant digital skills for young trainees entering the labour market.