Tool: Competency goals for adolescents
The Adolescent Kit supports adolescents in humanitarian situations to develop key competencies, knowledge, skills and attitudes that are essential for their wellbeing and healthy development.
The Adolescent Kit supports adolescents in humanitarian situations to develop key competencies, knowledge, skills and attitudes that are essential for their wellbeing and healthy development. These competencies are organised into a framework of ten competency domains, and include the abilities that adolescents need to cope with crisis, build healthy relationships and engage positively with the world around them.
Once you get started with your intervention, it is important to work with adolescents to identify the competency domains that are the most relevant and important to them. The next step is to develop goals within these domains – and to select activities in the Adolescent Kit that address them.
See the list below for ideas for the kind of goals that you can set for adolescents within each competency domain. Remember that these are just suggestions! Work with adolescents to come up with competency goals that meet their particular needs and interests.
Explore the competency goals
Competency goals for adolescents
- Listen to other people’s perspectives, concerns and needs
- Accurately express their ideas, perspectives or opinions
- Communicate calmly and effectively in challenging situations
- Understand how verbal and non-verbal communication can contribute to conflict or build peace in the community
- Understand their personal strengths and weaknesses
- Understand their individual identities in relation to their social, cultural, and historical context – Who am I?
- Understand their group identities and how they feel toward their group (e.g. peer group, ethnic group, age group) – Who are we?
- Recognize that they have influence over things that happen in their lives
- Stay with a project until a goal is achieved and overcome setbacks
- Take action to help themselves and others
- Contribute to transforming conflict/problems in family, friends and peer groups
- Understand the issues underlying problems or conflicts
- Explore multiple solutions/options to resolve a conflict or problem
- Persuade others to understand and respect their perspective
- Use negotiation skills during an interpersonal conflict
- Recognise and express different emotions safely and constructively
- Use healthy strategies for reducing stress and managing negative emotions
- Recognise how emotions and stress affect the behaviours of others
- Respond constructively to other peoples’ emotions and stress
- Recognize how their skills and others’ skills are valuable assets to a team
- Listen to the ideas and opinions of others and find solutions cooperatively
- Work in inclusive ways and compromise when working on a group or team task
- Form healthy, respectful and cooperative relationships with others
- Listen to and understand the thoughts, feelings and perspectives of others
- Recognise and respect similarities and differences between themselves and others
- Build positive relationships with family, friends and peers
- Imagine a positive future for themselves, their families and communities (including the possibility of peace)
- Set goals and develop an action plan for achieving their hopes and vision
- Take steps and work with others toward achieving their goals
- Balance the risks and benefits of different courses of action
- Gather and assess information to make informed choices
- Support decisions with evidence and strong arguments
- Recognise common stereotypes (gender, cultural, race)
- Experiment with creative and innovative ways to solve problems
- Brainstorm and generate different ideas, concepts and solutions
- Take healthy risks, and take advantage of opportunities that arise
Highlights
The Adolescent Kit supports adolescents in humanitarian situations to develop key competencies, knowledge, skills and attitudes that are essential for their wellbeing and healthy development. These competencies are organised into a framework of ten competency domains, and include the abilities that adolescents need to cope with crisis, build healthy relationships and engage positively with the world around them.
Once you get started with your intervention, it is important to work with adolescents to identify the competency domains that are the most relevant and important to them. The next step is to develop goals within these domains – and to select activities in the Adolescent Kit that address them.
See the list below for ideas for the kind of goals that you can set for adolescents within each competency domain. Remember that these are just suggestions! Work with adolescents to come up with competency goals that meet their particular needs and interests.
