Skills for Youth
The “Skills for Youth” project is being led by the International Youth Foundation (IYF) in partnership with QUEST Alliance, supported by USAID. IYF will provide overall leadership and government outreach support whereas the QUEST Alliance will anchor the pilot implementation and coordination of the field activities. The project will be implemented with a group of knowledge partners and various government and non-governmental institutions. The overall strategy of Sky project is to pilot test with different stakeholders on common intervention strategy for skills development of youth and institutionalize it through advocacy programme.
Career counseling, vocational guidance and career planning exercises have been identified as an immediate need to orient these disadvantaged youth in understanding their aptitudes, personality, interests and abilities. Based on our preliminary secondary research and discussion in a varied stakeholder group during the Livelihood Connect workshop, it has clearly come out as an immediate need of these youth who do not get an opportunity to complete their schooling and enter in the vicious circle of poverty by joining informal job market. Consultations with some of the stakeholders at the central level and few state secondary boards functionaries have reinforced the need for interventions in the area of career orientation for drop out students or are at risk of dropping out and looking for immediate job opportunities. These interventions will support them through career guidance and link them to appropriate skill training programmes offered by various government and non government institutions.
The project would like to engage with central and state governments to integrate career guidance components in their existing programme on skills development for youth and institutionalize it over a period of time. The outcome of the pilot project will be used to advocate for its application by Government institutions and NGOs that support under-served young people. The specific objectives of Sky project are to:
Objective 1: Increase the relevance and effectiveness of select current government programs by engaging and increasing the capacity of government stakeholders responsible for design, implementation and policy making related to career development as a key strategy for youth development.
Objective 2: Demonstrate effective program models to support disadvantaged young people to make relevant career choices based on the career preparation process.
The project aims to design and institutionalize contextual career orientation and exploration for both in-school (secondary and higher secondary) and out-of-school youth as a bridge to economically viable vocations for young adults to realize their full potential. The project will also create a multi-disciplinary knowledge platform in livelihood domain to engage with diverse stakeholders through a series of print publications, online resources, workshops and summits that will encourage information sharing and collaboration among actors in the youth employability field. This forum will also be a vehicle to generate leverage, spread awareness and attract investment to achieve the SkY program objective.
