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Launched July 15, 2020, the Global Skills Academy (GSA) is an international skills-development initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is designed to improve employability and prepare young people and adults for changing labor markets. It operates under the organization's Global Education Coalition and aligns with its strategy for technical and vocational education and training. The GSA connects countries, technical and vocational education and training institutions, and individual learners with training programs provided by members of the Global Education Coalition.
The initiative’s goal is to support 10 million youth and adults worldwide by 2029 in developing skills for employment and participation in a changing economy. Areas of emphasis include:
To achieve its goal, the GSA leverages strategic partnerships and mobilizes 230 TVET institutions across 150 countries through the UNESCO and UNEVOC networks. By analyzing the evolving labor market’s skills supply and demand, the GSA offers free training and mentorship programs. These programs empower learners with in-demand skills. By 2025, the Global Skills Academy reported having supported approximately 1.2 million learners, including training in areas such as artificial intelligence, coding, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, career development, and green skills.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization launched the GSA on World Youth Skills Day, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial objective was to equip one million young people with employability, digital, and resilience skills at a time when education, training, and employment opportunities were being significantly disrupted.
The GSA was created as an initiative of the Global Education Coalition, which had been established in March 2020 in response to worldwide education disruptions caused by the pandemic.
The initiative subsequently expanded beyond its original emergency-response role. Its target grew from one million young people to 10 million youth and adults by 2029, and its focus expanded to support longer-term digital, entrepreneurial, green, and other employment-related skills development.
The initiative is coordinated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization through the Global Education Coalition and its international network for technical and vocational education and training. The GSA operates through multi-stakeholder partnerships involving governments, education and training institutions, businesses, international organizations, and nonprofit organizations. Founding partners included Coursera, Dior, Festo, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft, Orange Digital Centres, and PIX. Additional organizations subsequently joined the initiative to provide training, mentoring, technology, and other services.
Operates through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and contributions of Global Education Coalition partners. Partners contribute training platforms, courses, expertise, mentoring, technology, and other resources.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Global Skills Academy. UNESCO's Global Skills Academy | UNESCO
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2020). UNESCO launches Global Skills Academy to boost employability of one million youth as recession looms. Launch announcement
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