Preparing young people for work: observations and challenges
We recently gathered some of the organisations in the GSF network running or supporting secondary schools for a roundtable discussion on 'Preparing Young People for Work'. Leaders from these organisations shared challenges, innovations and promising practices emerging from their secondary school and work preparedness programmes and brainstormed on collective ways forward.
It is estimated that 90 percent of children in low-income countries, 50 percent of children in middle-income countries, and 30 percent in high-income countries fail to master the basic skills needed to thrive in work and life. While secondary education enrolments have increased globally, only 42 percent of children from the poorest wealth quintile in their country complete lower secondary education. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the average tertiary education enrollment remains stagnant at below 9 percent. Many join work after secondary school, and large numbers enter the informal sector that requires no formal tertiary education. In India, over 90 percent of the entire workforce is in the informal sector.
At the same time, the nature of jobs is changing rapidly (half of the world's jobs are expected to disappear to automation by 2030), making it challenging to stay abreast and skilled for even those who make it into tertiary.
Given the myriad challenges, how can schools prepare young people for work at various stages of their school life?
This question becomes even more challenging for our community of organisations serving children from low-and-middle-income backgrounds and operating with limited resources. To this end, GSF is launching a Community of Practice to facilitate knowledge movement and collaboration in this space to further this mission. This blog shares the five key observations from a roundtable with our community, which will guide the focus areas for this upcoming Community of Practice.*
Learners aspire for tertiary education despite the challenges
Despite its cost and long duration, university-based tertiary education remains a significant aspiration for learners and families. In countries like South Africa with historical discrimination, learners aim for professions associated with high social status like medicine and law over vocational courses that sometimes tend to have a subordinate perception.
Learners draw aspirations from role models in the community, media, pop culture and notable alumni, making these channels an important resource for schools to consider for shaping student aspirations. Provision of bursary, parents' profession, learner's gender, and rural vs urban context also impact career aspirations significantly.
Parents heavily influence student ambitions and career decisions
Unsurprisingly, parents play a crucial role in shaping student aspirations, their field of study, and other career choices. Many of our school operators pointed to a mismatch between learner skills, aptitude, academic rigour, and their caregiver's career choice, which mostly leans toward jobs associated with financial security and social status.
Given that career choice is a joint decision in several contexts where our members operate, it is essential to engage parents in the learner's career development and help them understand available alternatives.
Identifying technical and vocational education as paths to economic sustainability is critical
The harsh reality is that not all students finish tertiary education and many join the labour market after secondary school. Depending on the region and setting, launching small businesses, working in agriculture, and other opportunities in the informal sector remain the preferred employment option for many graduates.
To ensure economic sustainability, organisations like PEAS run livelihood and entrepreneurship programmes in their rural schools in Zambia and Uganda. Christel House encourages learners to pursue not only university degrees but also short degrees, vocational and technical courses, and apprenticeship programmes based on their context.
Life-skills training is equally important
SPARK Schools' Character Quotient programme builds socio-emotional intelligence, self-regulation mechanisms and intrapersonal skills in their learners that they believe are critical to professional success after school. Similarly, Leap Sciences and Math Schools emphasise values, ethics and social responsibility for young people to take into work.
The group collectively believes in the importance of building soft skills like networking, negotiating, critical thinking, conflict resolution, emotional management, and mental well-being as highly essential pieces in finding, securing and thriving at work.
Defining and tracking alumni success is challenging
Organisations follow various facets of alumni trajectories for short to long durations depending on the programme model. For example, Christel House tracks their alumni's career trajectories for several years after they leave school to gauge their programme's success and provide alumni support. While this generates crucial data, defining holistic success metrics, tracking alumni movement, providing customised support, and finding tools and resources across contexts is challenging. In many regions with limited internet usage, the tracking is often in-person, labour intensive and lacks real-time data.
Our community has been testing innovative ideas like gap years, design-thinking workshops, strategically designed internships, alumni associations, role model programmes and the likes to ensure that every child they serve is set up for professional success. Our upcoming Community of Practice will dig deeper into some of these ideas.
*If you are keen to engage with the GSF community in the upcoming Community of Practice on ‘Preparing Young People for Work’, please get in touch with us at info@globalschoolsforum.org.
Divya Behl is the Programme Manager. Divya joined the GSF team in January 2020. She started her career as a Teach for India fellow, where she worked for two years in a government school. From there, she worked in a variety of roles including school leadership, stakeholder management, curriculum development, and the establishment and improvement of school systems in India and East Africa. Divya holds an M.A. in Elementary Education from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.