LIBRARY RESOURCE

The demand for workers in a changing world of work is continuously evolving. More than ever, schools and employment programs need to be able to detect skills needs from industry in an iterative fashion to ensure they are preparing young people for the jobs of today and the future. Businesses have an important role to play in this process and are often engaged through participation in advisory committees or offering internships/apprenticeships.

Global research (World Economic Forum, McKinsey, PwC) shows employers and markets across sectors and countries would benefit from more female management and leadership. More attention needs to be paid to young female workers in low-resource countries who have the potential, but are denied the opportunity, to advance as managers and leaders.

Despite considerable progress made in understanding the importance of soft skills for positive youth development and gathering evidence, challenges remain to developing effective and contextualized soft skills curricula, successfully measuring these skills, and interpreting the results. Presenters and attendees discussed what we know about the importance of soft skills in different contexts in LMICs, how we adapt and teach them, and how we measure them.

Incubators and accelerators are playing a larger role in startup communities around the world, and growing number target young social impact entrepreneurs. Yet the differences between incubators and accelerators is often not well defined or understood and, when it comes to quality, not all incubators and accelerators created equal. Although early evidence signals their potential to improve startups’ outcomes, and for these benefits to spill over into the broader startup community, the measurable impact of incubators and accelerators on performance varies widely among programs.