Spotlight on World Youth Skills Day

For nearly two decades, we’ve been celebrating what the U.N. designated as, World Youth Skills Day on July 15. Each year, the global community unites to embrace the importance of equipping young people with skills for employment and entrepreneurship – so all youth can reach their full potential. This year’s theme, Skilling Teachers, Trainers, and Youth for a Transformative Future, is an opportunity to build on USAID’s commitment to skill-building as both a foundation to learning and a crucial tool  in  addressing the challenges youth face. 

In recognition of World Youth Skills Day, explore some of the most vital resources that guide our teams and partners in designing, implementing and measuring  programming that gives young people the tools they need to gain employment, reach their potential, and become engaged in their communities.

Youth Skills Resources: Links to Expand Your Knowledge

1. State of the Evidence Update: Soft Skills Interventions
This State of the Evidence Update summarizes the evidence in the past five years around the different types of soft skills and related interventions that lead to demonstrated skills gains, employment and earnings, as well as other key cross- sectoral youth outcomes.

2. State of the Evidence Update: Soft Skills Measurement
This State of the Evidence Update focuses on the most recent evidence in soft skills measurement. It discusses the most effective ways to measure soft skills outcomes, including self-reported assessments, use of observational data, and situational judgment, along with the most effective instruments for working with adolescents of different ages. 

3. Youth Excel Learning Brief: Locally led Implementation Research on School-based Menstrual Health and Hygiene Support
This Learning Brief provides an interim summary of five Youth Excel grantees’ “Research-to-Change” work in strengthening Menstrual Health and Hygiene (MHH) support for Girls’ Education in Malawi and Zambia.

4. Youth Excel's Research-to-Change (R2C) Toolkit
The R2C toolkit designed by the Youth Excel: Our Knowledge, Leading Change consortium guides youth-led and youth-serving organizations to strengthen their Positive Youth Development (PYD) programs using research and data. This youth-inclusive toolkit offers a step-by-step process to planning, carrying out research, and using findings for concrete action.

5. USAID Youth in Development Policy
The 2022 USAID Youth in Development policy aims to increase the meaningful participation of youth within their peer groups, families, communities, schools, organizations, and their country’s economy. Youth engagement enhances skills, provides opportunities, and fosters healthy relationships so that youth can build on their collective leadership.

6. USAID Higher Education Learning Agenda
This learning agenda defines Agency-wide learning priorities in higher education across sectors. It was developed collaboratively with more than 100 individuals from USAID Missions, USAID Washington, implementing partners, and other stakeholders. Its implementation generates evidence and resources that inform and improve the effectiveness of USAID strategic planning and programming, as well as improve knowledge and practice across the higher education ecosystem of USAID partners.

7. Discover What We Are Learning in Youth Development 
Read the YP2LE Positive Youth Development (PYD) Learning Agenda Literature Scan Brief, with findings from recent YD research and recommendations, along with the Youth and LGBTQ+ Participation in Non-violent Action and Integrating Mental Health and Psychosocial Support into Youth Programming reports. For more essential  resources on PYD, listen to this bi-monthly podcast featuring changemakers working on youth-related projects around the globe. Each episode includes three new PYD resource recommendations.

Explore EducationLinks to find more ways to help the next generation move us forward in ways we have yet to imagine.