Skills development
Equipping children and adolescents with relevant skills to succeed in life
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Our challenges
Children and adolescents are growing up in a constantly evolving world. Globally, technology, migration, climate change and conflict are transforming societies and forcing people to adapt to unexpected changes in their routines and livelihoods.
Therefore, education must help students develop the skills to become lifelong learners, make informed decisions, participate positively in their community and secure productive work.
Without access to educational opportunities for skills development, children and adolescents will face serious challenges to thrive in the 21st century, and this will have repercussions for generations to come.
Before the pandemic, Latin America and the Caribbean was already lagging in terms of children’s learning and skills acquisition. Prolonged school closures caused by the pandemic added new challenges, disrupting students’ acquisition of essential life skills, especially among vulnerable children and adolescents.
Our approach
Our work includes a comprehensive approach to skills development, which considers:
- Fundamental skills, such as literacy and mathematics
- Transferable skills, also referred to as life skills or social-emotional skills
- Digital skills, which help people use and understand technology
- Job-specific skills, which support the transition to the world of work
- Entrepreneurial skills, which support business and social entrepreneurship.
What do we do?
Children and adolescents are growing up in a constantly evolving world. Globally, technology, migration, climate change and conflict are transforming societies and forcing people to adapt to unexpected changes in their routines and livelihoods. Education must help students develop the skills to become lifelong learners, make informed decisions, participate positively in their community and secure productive work.
We believe it is critical to encourage investment and coordinate actions to strengthen education systems to ensure all students, especially those from the most marginalized populations, can acquire skills that will help them develop their full potential.
We focus on:
- Generating evidence on education policy, curriculum, pedagogy, and financing to support decision-making processes.
- Promoting knowledge management by producing technical documents, systematizing good practices and lessons learned and supporting experience exchange opportunities and spaces.
- Providing technical assistance to our national and regional partners.
