Skills development throughout adolescence

• In Event: What’s skills got to do, got to do with it?

Proposal

Room to Read’s Girls’ Education Program (GEP) supports girls to stay in school and develop strong life skills. GEP operates in 9 countries throughout southern Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, working with girls throughout their lower and upper secondary school years. The program has four main activities: life skills (lessons and club activities); mentoring (individual and group mentoring); family, school and community engagement (including parent workshops and parent committees); and material support (need-based support such as uniforms and exam fees). The life skills and mentoring components are the core of the program and were developed to support girls in developing the following ten life skills: self-confidence, managing and expressing emotions, empathy, self-control, critical-thinking, relationship building, decision-making, perseverance, communication, and creative problem-solving.

Room to Read’s program is built from the premise that leadership, self-esteem and life skills development are mutually reinforcing. That said, they purposefully frontload life skills lessons in the lower secondary school years, hopefully giving girls the raw material from which to grow their leadership skills and self-esteem through a variety of platforms such as organizing community events and leading club activities, as they progress through the entirely of secondary school. We aim to provide girls with information and opportunities to grow at the most strategic and impactful points in their secondary school careers. This presentation will specifically focus on the design employed across multiple countries, and how they intentionally shift emphasis of the main activities throughout the secondary school years.

Author

• Heather Simpson, Room to Read