Measuring life skills among youth aged 15-25 years in Kenya: Results from three national studies

• In Event: Measuring soft skills: concepts, methods and results

Proposal

Kenya has a vibrant schooling system, with nearly 95 percent of eligible children enrolled in primary school, and transitions from primary to secondary now nearing 80 percent. Surveys over the last decade have established quality gaps and sharp inequality in learning outcomes, and decried the emphasis on academic competences over other capabilities that young persons require to navigate work and life. Realizing this, the government of Kenya is in the process of implementing 15 education reforms, targeting inclusion, quality and the equalization of learning opportunity for all children.

One such reform is the curriculum reform, moving from a contents-based to a competency-focused curriculum. This new curriculum is being implemented in the early grades since January 2018. Among the flagship changes is the introduction of thinking, emotional and social skills, otherwise referred to as 21st century skills, life skills or soft skills. The curriculum has prioritized seven life skills, among them communication, digital literacy and learning to learn. Despite this, less clarity exists on the methods that best nurture these competences, and the assessments and tools to measure progress in these areas.

To address the gaps, three empirical studies are being implemented to inquire into the soft skills mostly demanded by today’s work and life spaces, and the methods that are working to equip youth with such skills within the technical and vocational training sector in Kenya. The studies are focusing on three categories of youth – youth not in employment, education or training, youth in training institutions, and working youth. The studies are basing on nationally-representative samples of youth and training institutions. Combined, the studies will include around 5,000 young persons aged 15-25 years in 250 villages, 183 training institutions and around 1200 work spaces in both formal and informal employment. A rich combination of qualitative and quantitative methods is expected to yield rich results with fair balance between breadth and depth, including assessment data on the competences that youth possess, and those that they lack. Data collection is ongoing, and results are expected by January 2019.

The pilot results point to acknowledgement of the worth of these skills among the different actors, and relatively high awareness levels on what these competences are, and those that youth mostly require in both work and life spaces. Though life skills are defined in the curriculum, this is largely limited to health skills (like HIV AIDS knowledge), with less clarity on social emotional competences. Digital literacy skills have also been largely included, though again, this is limited to offline, computer application skills. However, education and training institutions lack clarity on the methods that best develop these skills, and the only mode of assessing is through formal examinations.

The emerging evidence points to the need to focus on holistic development of youth, and the conclusion that upgrading institutional capacities to adopt whole-institution and integrated approaches to develop the range of transferrable skills may be necessary. At the same, monitoring progress necessitates the invention of simple, easy-to-use methods and tools to measure transferrable skills.

Author

• John Mugo, Twaweza East Africa