Highlighting solutions in soft skills development for youth in challenging environments

Session Submission Type: Group Panel

Description of Session

Across the world, youth are often excluded from economic opportunities because they lack the appropriate skills to enter the workforce. Soft skills (sometimes referred to as “life skills”) such as critical thinking, communication, self-control, and positive self-concept are increasingly viewed as crucial for ensuring youth livelihood opportunities. However, developing these skills can be challenging, particularly in contexts where conflict and lack of economic opportunity can lead to the assumption that young people themselves are part of the problem. Seeking to highlight promising approaches to these challenges, YouthPower (a USAID initiative) is proposing a panel focused on soft skills development for youth in challenging environments.
YouthPower takes a Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach to youth programing: focusing on building youth’s strengths, not dwelling on their deficits, even in the most challenging environments. The panel will bring to the table perspectives from implementers leading soft skills programs in El Salvador, Kenya, Rwanda, Honduras, and the Philippines. As each country faces unique challenges for youth, implementers also present unique perspectives and solutions to soft-skills training and development. Additionally, the panel will gather insights from the YouthPower Cross-Sectoral Skills Community of Practice, on promising approaches to soft-skills development in challenging contexts.
Panellists will represent the following organizations, and respective topics.
DAI Global LLC - Addressing youth soft-skills gaps in areas of crime and violence: Youth in areas of crime and violence often don’t have access to the same education and training opportunities accessible in other communities. Bridges to Employment, a USAID-funded project in El Salvador, is using contextually relevant approaches with youth.
Education Development Center - Soft Skills in Action: A project implemented in Rwanda, Honduras, and the Philippines asks youth—alongside their potential employers and educators—to share what soft skills they believe are most valuable for employment and education. Results from the Anchored BFI (a quantitative tool measuring soft skills across cultures), focus group discussions, and youth’s photography of soft skills in action will be shared.
Results for Development (R4D) – Sharing lessons from the YouthPower Cross-Sectoral Skills Community of Practice: As leaders of the YouthPower Cross-Sectoral Skills Community of Practice, R4D facilitates exchange of knowledge, experiences, and ideas to build a better understanding of cross-sectoral skills, their current role and potential for impact on youth development programs. Leveraging the experience of its membership, R4D will present on promising approaches to soft-skills assessment and training in challenging contexts, including low-income, remote, and conflict settings.
Research Triangle Institute - Integrating soft skills in all training in Kenya. Adapting Work readiness skills delivery in rural counties and urban low income areas. Preparing youth in vocational training centres, youth entrepreneurs, integrating soft skills in business skills and financial access curricular, literacy and numeracy curricular.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Maria Brindlmayer, Making Cents International

Presenters

• Rebecca Povec Pagel, Education Development Center (EDC)

• Leesa Kaplan-Nunes, Development Alternatives, Inc.

• Joyce Wafula, RTI International

• Caitlin Moss, Results for Development Institute

Individual Presentations

• Measuring youth's soft skills across cultures: Evidence from the Philippines and Rwanda - Rebecca Povec Pagel, Education Development Center (EDC)

Discussant

• Michael McCabe, US Agency for International Development (USAID)