Equipping youth for the future through school, work, and beyond

Take a moment to remember who taught you some of your most valuable skills. Was it your parents, schoolteachers, a sports coach, or someone at work early on in your career? All of them?

To thrive in today’s fast-changing world, young people must acquire strong social and emotional skills, digital literacy, and a robust foundation of literacy and numeracy. Nurturing these skills requires exposure to different learning environments. Access to modern education, extracurricular activities, and work experience are all critical for success.  

Education systems must reinvent themselves

Globally, only about 2 in 5 youth acquire the foundational, digital, and socio-emotional skills needed to thrive in school, work, and life. Youth in low- and lower-middle-income countries are particularly lagging.

The school curriculum can no longer be limited to core subjects like reading and math. Schools are beginning to nurture a broad range of skills such as critical thinking, communication, and digital literacy needed for many career paths.

Education systems must therefore move away from the widespread ”industrial” model of education that prioritizes conformity and memorizing knowledge. Instead, new principles and pedagogies, such as project-based and experiential learning, are becoming the new normal.

In East Asia, for example, countries with the strongest education systems are shifting from a teacher-centered, exam-oriented pedagogy towards student-centered learning pathways that build skills for lifelong learning. In Nigeria, investments in secondary education emphasize training in life skills and digital literacy for girls.

School-based entrepreneurship education can also be a platform to learn and practice critical skills. For instance, in Uganda, integrating entrepreneurship and socio-emotional skills training in secondary schools has shown promising impacts. Similarly, the government of Mongolia promotes entrepreneurship-focused socio-emotional skills across secondary schools.

Expand learning opportunities outside of school

Participation in extracurricular activities, such as sports, music clubs, volunteering, or other community groups represents an important channel for skills development outside of school. For example, organized sports require training regularly, communicating with coaches and teammates, performing under pressure, and recovering from losses or injuries. It cultivates discipline, emotional regulation, teamwork, leadership, and perseverance. Similarly, STEM-focused after-school and holiday programs such as coding clubs and camps can boost digital literacy, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

Governments are strengthening access to extracurricular activities as part of their strategy to prepare young people for work and life. For instance, the government of Tajikistan is expanding extracurricular and livelihood opportunities by refurbishing youth facilities and strengthening services that provide life skills, digital skills, and psychosocial support. In other countries, including the Central African Republic, the World Bank is helping set up clubs for young women and men as safe spaces to connect with peers, reinforce foundational skills, develop healthy behaviors, and pursue new job opportunities. In Lebanon, the National Volunteer Service Program contributed to a stronger sense of belonging to the community and higher tolerance, showing that these initiatives can also foster social cohesion.

Help youth step onto and up the job ladder

Children and youth base their learning and career aspirations on who they know – typically parents, relatives, and peers. For many, this means limited exposure to different education and employment opportunities.

Life planning, career talks, or workplace visits from a young age can help young people expand their horizons and experience different options first-hand. Students who explore, experience, and think about their futures have been found to experience lower levels of unemployment, receive higher wages, and are happier as adults. By exposing youth to role models, career orientation also helps break down gendered stereotypes, which can encourage young women’s participation in STEM.

Exposure to workplaces and practical work experience is also vital for skills development, as many skills are acquired or demonstrated “by doing.” Youth employment programs must prioritize on-the-job training such as internships and informal apprenticeships to help youth apply, practice, and signal the skills they have learned - from vocational to digital skills. This is the essential first step on what World Bank President Ajay Banga called the “ladder of opportunity.”

The World Bank is supporting many countries in this endeavor. For instance, the Mauritania Youth Employability Project offers career guidance, job search assistance, life skills, as well as technical training combined with internships for vulnerable youth. Similarly, participants in the Benin Youth Inclusion Project receive on-the-job training in technical and socio-emotional skills through 3-12 month-long internships.

Ambitious reforms needed

As the world of work evolves, policymakers must rethink how and where to support youth to build the socio-emotional, digital, and foundational skills to succeed in work and life.

Developing the right skills for the future is not just the responsibility of schools. Holistic reforms are needed to modernize education, provide non-formal learning opportunities, and offer practical work experience to young people.

Small steps will not be enough. To unlock the full potential of their future workforce, countries need to make bold investments in young people’s human capital foundations today.

This blog is a follow-up to the 2024 Annual Meetings, where the World Bank brought together ministers from the World Bank’s Human Capital Network and other influential voices from the private sector, academia, and civil society for its Human Capital Conclave on “Equipping Young Women and Men for a Fast-Changing World.”

It is the third blog in a series highlighting the investments in critical skills needed to help young people thrive in an increasingly complex world. The first blog is available here, and the second blog is available here.

We are grateful to Sarah Eleuterio Comer for her insightful feedback and valuable comments on this blog. 

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