Adapting Soft Skills Training to the Labor Market

• In Event: Developing soft skills among youth in Central America and sub Saharan Africa

Proposal

This paper highlights how the USAID’s funded Empleando Futuros (EF) project delivers soft skills training to the targeted population. It will show how this soft skills training curriculum was designed, adapted to respond to the local conditions as well as the needs of the local labor market, and why soft skills program was offered prior to, or integrated with, technical programs. The EF project is undertaken in Honduras’ insecure urban environments. Due to the safety concerns of some of the project locations, and the type of youth EF targets, the project adapted the life-skills curriculum to youth at high levels of risk, including youth who had been in conflict with the law, and training recipients in the community.

EF in Honduras aims to increase employability and protective factors for at-risk youth ages 16-29 years.
Youth at risk are those who live in areas with high crime rate, yet exhibit few signs related to violent behavior, or who have a strong safety nets, such as strong family or positive peer groups. Youth at secondary risk are those who exhibit signs in either thoughts or actions related to violent behavior, or who do not have safety nets. Youth at tertiary risk are those who engage in criminal/violent behavior.

As part of this programming, EF implements a 104-hour life skills program that focuses on six key areas: personal development; communication; professionalism; understanding the labor market; entrepreneurship; and leadership. Once participants finalize the life-skills program, they can participate in a variety of technical programs.
The life-skills training program was adapted as result of consultation with the private sector to improve youth employability. Based on project experiences and the feedback received from multiple employers, some of which had participated in tailoring the curriculum, this program stresses five key skills that are essential to securing and keeping a job. These skills are integrated throughout all of EF training and include: etiquette; punctuality; communication skills; pro-activeness; resulted oriented.
This paper endeavours to outline some of the most successful features of the life-skills curriculum, and present ways of adapting the skills in practically high-crime urban environments.
The life-skills training is implemented by facilitators who are mainly from the same communities as the youth and benefitting from the project. The project facilitators, from inception designed and used the life-skills manual that relate to examples that reflect the reality of the youth and their specific environment. A ‘back-to-basics’ approach is needed in these trainings to ensure that the youth possess the necessary life-skills to be more productive.
EF’s findings show that recruiting the right facilitator, with the right experience is fundamental to the project’s success. Two lessons that have emerged from EF’s experience include; (1) the importance of working with established local partners/organisations, and (2) the importance of building a positive image.
This paper will also highlight EF’s experience in adapting life-skills training, depending on gender or sexual orientation, to enable youth obtain the best life-skills needed to pursue technical/vocational training that will enhance their likelihood for employment.

Author

• Louis Alexander, Banyan Global