youth and · aligning secondary education systems, youth and markets. 5. education youth. markets....

YOUTH AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT IN SECONDARY EDUCATIONMelanie SanyTechnical Director of EDC International Youth and Workforce Development Programs

September 2020

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Hello, my name is Melanie Sany, Technical Director of EDC International Youth and Workforce Development Programs. I will be presenting today about our work in scaling secondary education outcomes. I will share examples and lessons learned from projects financed by USAID and the Mastercard Foundation in Rwanda and Senegal.

Challenge in Africa

3EDC - Youth and Workforce Development in Secondary Education

22.5Million

Young People enter the

workforce each year

Rwanda

Senegal

Africa

450Million

Working Age Population Growth

by 2035

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Most of us are familiar with the youth employment challenge over the world and especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. By 2035, Africa’s working age population will grow by 450 million, meaning on average ~22.5 million young people will be entering Africa’s workforce each year.

Zoom on Senegal


Nonexistent government

jobs

Lack of meaningful wage

employment

Youth don't have the right

skills

100,000+ Enter Jobs Market

Presenter

Presentation Notes

In Senegal, over 100,000 youth enter the jobs market annually. Too often, young Senegalese follow an academic path in hopes of obtaining a government job, which doesn't exist. Meanwhile, employers find that graduates don't have the right skills that businesses need.

Aligning secondary education systems, youth and markets

5

EDUCATION YOUTH MARKETS

EDC - Youth and Workforce Development in Secondary Education

Presenter

Presentation Notes

There is a misalignment between: (1) the education system, (2) youth’s skills and expectations, and (3) market demand. By 2015, the Ministry of Education was looking for help in aligning their secondary system better with the realities faced by youth and the demand of the labor market. To do so, we told them that two things are critical:

Key Skills for Senegal Middle Schools


1Personal

Development

2Interpersonal

Communication

3 4Leadership and Collaboration

Hygiene, health and safety

Financial Skills

Entrepreneurship and Market Concepts

Digital Literacy

5 6 7Schools and professional

pathways

8

Presenter

Presentation Notes

First, youth need to develop soft skills and attitudes that are transferable across sectors, but also allow them to navigate markets and change over time. For the Senegal middle schools, we worked with key stakeholders from the education, youth and private sectors to agree upon the most relevant skills. These are presented on your screen.

3Real Life Exposure across a Work-Based Learning Continuum:


Soft Skills

Work Readiness

Skills

Work Exposure

Work Experience

Internships PostWorkplace

The Worldof Work

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Second, to develop these skills, young learners need to have real-life exposure to and experience in the workplace early on, way before graduation. EDC integrates work-based learning into national education systems with an approach that gradually introduces learners to the world of work while they’re still in school.

Challenge #1:

8

Lack of formal policies and cultural norms that enable the teaching of soft skills at scale


Presenter

Presentation Notes

So, what are the major challenges with incorporating these new practices into formal secondary education systems? In Senegal, the formal system did not have the curriculum and policy frameworks for incorporating soft skills into the secondary curriculum. Teachers and administrators were not used to the concept of soft skills, or the hands-on pedagogy required to teach it to young people.

9

Challenge #2:

Fragmented relationships between schools, market actors, and youth

EMPLOYERS


Presenter

Presentation Notes

For work-based learning, there was a similar scaling problem. It is relatively easy for NGOs to broker individual relationships between schools and employers, but I would like to challenge this model. For us, we saw a need to strengthen the lasting connections between education providers, employers, and youth—outside of USAID investment.

Embedding within the National and Local System


MARKETELEMENTARY UPPER SECONDARY

TVET

UNIVERSITYLOWER SECONDARY

YOUTH, COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES AND SUPPORT

Presenter

Presentation Notes

To address those challenges, we designed activities that would be embedded within the existing system, engaging all actors and aligning them toward improved secondary education outcomes. Through early participative stakeholder dialogues with youth and local actors, we identified the following key champions: Education Ministry, schools, and regional academies; market actors and SMEs (small and medium enterprises); and, finally, youth themselves, their families, and communities. I’m going to provide examples of how we did this.

NATIONAL

Contribute to curriculum reform from the top-down and bottom-up


PROVINCIALLOCAL

Presenter

Presentation Notes

First, we have supported policy reforms and practices across all levels of the system. We worked at the national level for curriculum reforms. At the provincial level, we facilitated the professional development of master trainers and inspectors to ensure quality and ongoing teacher mentoring. At the local level, we addressed school constraints through in-service teacher training and capacity building of school management committees.

Support youth- and community-based solutions for work-based learning


Presenter

Presentation Notes

For all youth to benefit from a work experience, connections need to be made with thousands of workplaces, from small to large enterprises. We iterated with teachers and communities to find multiple ways for youth to progressively connect with the workplace, both in the classroom and through structured, after-school “clubs.” Teachers learn to teach and empower the youth to make their own connections with the private sector. Youth Club facilitators learn to develop continuous relationship-building with prospective local employers.

Support youth-led solutions for entrepreneurship

ACCESS TO FINANCE

Supportive Youth-ledGroup coaching

Be Your Own Boss (BYOB)

Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC)


Presenter

Presentation Notes

Youth who plan to be self-employed need tailored and ongoing entrepreneurship coaching. We work with schools to organize entrepreneurship clubs led by students with teacher support. These clubs offer peer-based coaching as well as school-based access to savings and lending groups, a first step towards financing their business start-ups.

Nurture a culture of learning and adaptation among system actors

Meet Regularly

14

Conduct Site Visits

Hold Annual Forums


Presenter

Presentation Notes

Scaling education outcomes relies on a culture of learning and adaptation among system actors themselves. Services need to be able to adapt to changing market conditions, to youth with different needs, to different capacities of teachers and local schools. We encourage them to meet regularly to learn from each other about what’s working and to troubleshoot challenges. This is important to demonstrate to government champions a new way of doing things—and that it works.

Illustrative Outcomes


2300Teachers

350Secondary Schools

Can Implement, Innovate, and Develop New Content

around Soft Skills

Rwanda

Senegal

Presenter

Presentation Notes

In Rwanda and Senegal combined, over 2,300 teachers, school directors and education personnel in 350 secondary schools are now able to implement, innovate, and develop new content around soft skills. Soft skills training is now embedded in the Rwandan national secondary curriculum.

Illustrative Outcomes


2500Employers

Network

180Entrepreneurship Clubs

Rwanda Senegal

School-based

Presenter

Presentation Notes

In Rwanda, youth themselves learned to connect with employers. This led us from a network of 300 employers to connections and placement with over 2,500 employers. In Senegal, 180 secondary schools have set up entrepreneurship clubs.

Four key considerations for scaling and sustaining

17

SIZE


1 10,000–30,000YOUTH TARGET IN

4-5 YEARS TO

100,000+ YOUTH

Presenter

Presentation Notes

There are four key considerations that I want to conclude with that can effectively support a project aiming at transforming systems. First, does it hold the test of size? We have found that a project targeting 10,000 to 30,000 youth within 5 years provides the right incentives for scaling. Designing within this range is a good springboard for scaling up to 100,000 students and beyond. Anything smaller tends to not reveal the “blind spots” that could hinder scale-up.


18

COST


2Align the project budget to the Ministry budget

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Second, are the changes affordable to those who will be financing them? EDC spent considerable time with the Ministries of Education in both countries to do cost analysis. Together, we aligned the project budget to the Ministry budget to show that scaling in the national system was within their budget’s reach.


19

CLA


3 • Continuous qualitative monitoring• Robust learning agenda• Data visualization• User-friendly communications

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Third, both projects had a learning agenda that was co-created by and included donors, government, and other system actors. We relied on continuous qualitative monitoring, a robust learning agenda, and learning sessions between actors. We also invested in data visualization and user-friendly communications.


20

TIMING


4Strengthening capacity and networks between system

actors takes time

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Fourth, strengthening capacity and networks between system actors takes time. In the case of Rwanda and Senegal, we have been able to integrate new practices into the secondary school system within five years, but it is taking more years to see more widespread and lasting changes between system actors, particularly around quality assurance.

THANK YOUMelanie [email protected]


Presenter

Presentation Notes

Thank you! Please reach out to me if you have any questions.

youth and · aligning secondary education systems, youth and markets. 5. education youth. markets....

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