World Youth Skills Day

Oh, to be young again! From play dates and neighbourhood road hockey to times tables and high school graduation, the rollercoaster of life is just getting started.

July 15 is World Youth Skills Day in Canada, and although most of us have outgrown the kids menu, the learning that we did as children on the playground and in the classroom has shaped what we represent for the next generation of young Canadians.

Youth in Canada make up about one quarter of the country’s population. As of July 1, 2021, 15.7% of the Canadian population  was aged 0 to 14 years and 11.8% aged 15 to 24 years.

World Youth Skills Day is an excellent opportunity for educators, parents and caregivers alike to celebrate all of the different ways that Canada’s diverse youth enrich our communities. Whether it is in the classroom or on the playground, youth in Canada are learning and growing.

Younger Canadians are more likely than previous generations to have completed postsecondary education. In 2019, 73% of young Canadians aged 25 to 34 had attained a postsecondary qualification, an increase compared with 59% recorded in 2000.

With the exception of Korea, in 2020, a higher proportion of young Canadians had attained a college or university qualification than their counterparts in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. However, how do secondary students compare with their counterparts in other OECD countries in terms of literacy and numeracy skills?

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international survey administered every three years to 15-year-olds around the world that directly measures student performance in reading, math and science. In 2018, PISA results showed that Canadian 15-year-olds were among the best in the world in reading and math.

The proportion of Canadian students who achieved the highest levels of proficiency in reading was third highest among all OECD countries at 15%. The comparable figure for all OECD countries combined was 9%.

Canada also has a larger proportion of high-performing math students (15%) than the United States (8%), Australia (11%) and the United Kingdom (13%), but a much smaller proportion than China (44%), Singapore (37%) and Hong Kong (29%). Notably, students in Quebec perform particularly well in math (21% achieve the highest levels of proficiency).

Lucky for older folks, learning and growing doesn’t have to stop as youth fades. Truly, we could all probably learn a little something from young Canadians. For example, according to the 2016 Census, almost half of youth aged 15 to 30 years (46%) reported using a sustainable mode of transit to commute to work, which included public transit, walking, cycling or carpooling, compared with 28% of adults over age 30. Youth aged 15 to 30 were in the best physical shape of their lives: they reported better health, smoked less (at least on a daily basis), were more active and were less likely to be obese than older Canadians.

Canadian youth enriches the different areas of society in many ways. For more information on young Canadians,  A Portrait of Youth in Canada brings together and analyzes a wide range of data sources that provide information on various important aspects of their lives, including their mental and physical health, labour market participation, education, social participation, the environment and demographic issues. A chapter is also dedicated to Indigenous youth in recognition of the distinct challenges they face.

In addition, on November 30, 2022, the release of new data on education in Canada from the 2021 Census will provide further insight into the educational attainment and employment outcomes of youth in Canada.