World Learning’s WorkLinks curriculum in Algeria: Employability and Soft Skills Curriculum Development in Context

• In Event: Life skills education for youth: Critical perspectives

Proposal

In recent years, alongside rising interest in life skills and soft skills in the education and international development fields more generally, several USAID-funded initiatives have produced literature reviews and guides intended to help coalesce the international development discourse and practice around soft skills programming towards a certain coherence and homogeneity, as well as improved quality. At the same time, international development program implementers continue to recognize the key importance of having contextually relevant curricula that evolve based on experience with particular youth populations rather than simply adhering to general donor recommendations. Through a case study of World Learning’s WorkLinks curriculum in Algeria, this presentation offers insight into the complexities of soft skills curriculum development and revision processes in one particular context and with a specific population of young adults. The Youth Employment Project (YEP), funded by the U.S. State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and implemented by World Learning in partnership with nine Algerian technical and vocational institutes in nine provinces, reached over 9,000 youth. These youth participated in soft skills and employability skills training modules, taught through an experiential learning methodology, and additional offerings including individual career counseling, career fairs, and two dozen different types of technical trainings. World Learning developed this soft skills curriculum for a previous project, adapted it for the YEP project, and then undertook systematic qualitative research with youth and employers halfway through YEP implementation to determine needed revisions to the curriculum.

Presenting the practice-based and research-based evolution of this curriculum over time, the paper presentation focuses on three key curriculum development issues encountered during this process: the challenge of selecting the most relevant soft skills to teach, determining and training for effective pedagogical approaches, and adapting to donor and local institutional requirements. The author will also share reflections on new frontiers of soft skills development methodologies, including narrative-based role modeling, virtual reality, and the potentials for role play and experiential smartphone apps.

Author

• Catherine Honeyman, World Learning