The European project will reserve at least 30% of participants under the age of 40 and 30% over the age of 55 in its intergenerational workshops, while opening the RS-Labs challenges to the perspectives of rural youth.
15 July 2026. On the occasion of World Youth Skills Day, celebrated every 15 July under this year’s United Nations theme, “Skills for a Shared Future,” the RuralSilverHubS (RSH) project highlights that its approach to developing the Silver Economy across rural areas of Spain, France and Portugal explicitly incorporates the intergenerational dimension as one of its core methodological pillars.
RuralSilverHubS, funded by the Interreg Sudoe 2021–2027 Programme and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), is based on the premise that active ageing and generational renewal in rural areas are two sides of the same coin. For this reason, the methodology applied in the project’s intergenerational workshops establishes that each working group must include at least 30% of participants under the age of 40 and 30% of participants over the age of 55, ensuring a genuine space for dialogue, mutual learning and co-creation between generations.
This same vision will also be reflected in the RS-Labs, the project’s innovation laboratories, from which open challenges will be launched for startups, local authorities and citizens across the participating territories. The challenges developed through the RS-Labs will incorporate an intergenerational perspective and will specifically recognise young people as active contributors to the design of solutions for the Silver Economy, rather than merely as beneficiaries of those solutions.
“Including young people from the very beginning of the challenge-design process, rather than only as end users, is the best way to ensure that the Silver Economy is built with a truly intergenerational perspective.”
RuralSilverHubS
About World Youth Skills Day
World Youth Skills Day has been observed every 15 July since it was established by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution A/RES/69/145, adopted on 18 December 2014 following a proposal by Sri Lanka, with the support of the Group of 77 and China and the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth. The first observance took place in 2015.
The day highlights the strategic importance of equipping young people with the skills needed to access decent employment and develop entrepreneurial initiatives. It also serves as a platform for dialogue among young people, vocational education and training institutions, the private sector, public authorities and international cooperation organisations. Each year is organised around a different theme. In 2026, under the title “Skills for a Shared Future,” the focus is on combining technical, digital, artificial intelligence, green and socio-emotional skills to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving labour market.
At the international level, the observance is coordinated by the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Youth Office, and the Permanent Missions of Portugal and Sri Lanka to the United Nations, which organise international events and seminars around 15 July each year. According to ILO data, the global youth unemployment rate stood at around 13% in 2023, its lowest level in 15 years. Nevertheless, significant territorial and gender disparities persist, making initiatives such as those promoted by RuralSilverHubS in rural areas particularly relevant.