![A young woman in Liberia A young woman in Liberia](/sites/default/files/Youth%20Workforce%20Devel-Trade.jpg)
EDC's workforce development programs support youth in building skills for a better future.
Strong economies hinge upon youth having the skills they need to secure meaningful, well-paid work. Our programs help young people succeed in jobs, entrepreneurship, and ongoing career learning. We build our programs to better connect young people with mentors, training providers, and employers.
In the United States, we engage educators and business leaders in providing academically rigorous, work-based learning—career and technical, high school, and post-secondary—that leads to meaningful careers. Around the world, we emphasize soft skills as a means to employment and advancement. We specialize in using technology tools to enrich training for youth and instructors and to make job seeking easier.
Read "Opening the Door to the Future" to learn more about EDC's work to support youth and workforce development.
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Projects
Resources
Here are a few of our resources on youth and workforce development. To see more, visit our Resources section.
EDC’s experience and impact delivering positive youth development and lifelong learning opportunities worldwide.
This resource is designed to help K–8 teachers prepare their students to succeed in STEM learning in high school and thrive in STEM careers.
This case study from Rwanda explores the key components that drive improvements in youth skills and employment—equitably and at scale.
This study examines the reach and impact of EDC’s entrepreneurship programming in Ethiopia, Mali, and Rwanda since 2011.
The proliferation of new technologies is changing the way we live, learn, and work. This white paper examines the complex and interconnected challenges related to workforce development, economics, education, equity, and ethics that our society must address to ensure our workforce is future-ready.
EDC’s Women Veterans in STEM team collaborated with their advisory board to develop this series of white papers. The five papers provide an overview of women veterans’ needs. They focus on strategies to support women veterans’ health and well-being, success in the STEM workforce, completion of STEM education, and transition to civilian life.
EDC developed the Educator Assessment of Learners’ Soft Skills Ability (EALSA), a formative soft skills assessment, for use with secondary and tertiary students in East and West Africa.