Skill Up
Make your lived experiences count as much as your formal education when it comes to developing your skills for work and life.
Schools and other formal education settings are usually where young people develop foundational skills – in other words, literacy and numeracy. But they aren’t the only places to attain skills.
You also pick up all sorts of skills when going about your daily life. Perhaps you’re involved in a community group or sports team, where you are honing a range of transferable skills. Or maybe you are teaching yourself digital skills at home via online tutorials.
Events and networking opportunities may give you insights into entrepreneurial skills. And working or volunteering part-time alongside your studies can help you to gain job-specific skills.
But how can you show future employers that you’ve attained such a variety of skills?
Steps you can take
So much of what you do in your daily life adds to your skills. To make sure that others can recognize your learning, make it count by getting certified or recorded in some other way.
Find certified skilling resources
Seek out free resources to build your skills. And build up a CV that features ‘micro-credentials’ as well as formal qualifications. Micro-credentials are used to certify the completion of shorter courses or training.
Check out the Yoma platform to unlock your hidden potential. You can take part in social impact tasks and learning to earning opportunities via the platform, building a verifiable digital CV as you go.
Passport to Earning is an e-learning solution for young people in India who are looking to gain relevant twenty-first century skills. YuWaah Skills offers a learning passport for India’s youth.
AGORA is UNICEF’s global hub for learning and it’s free for you to use. Earn yourself digital badges and certificates as you build new skills.
Volunteer
Think about signing up to volunteer on a regular basis. Not only will you help to support a good cause, but you will also build a mindset and skills that will prepare you for the future.
Volunteering is closely linked with employability, skills acquisition and enhanced professional development.
In fact, volunteering builds 9 of the Top 10 Skills of Tomorrow (World Economic Forum):
- analytical thinking and innovation
- active learning, and learning strategies
- complete problem-solving
- critical thinking and analysis
- creativity, originality and initiative
- leadership and social influence
- technology use, monitoring and control
- reasoning, problem-solving and ideation
Explore how to get involved through the Global Volunteer Initiative
Take part in challenges
Try out being an entrepreneur and make the world a better place at the same time. Challenge yourself to come up with an enterprise that could have a social impact, whether locally or globally.
You can nurture and share your idea by taking part in the imaGen Ventures Youth Challenge. Owning your idea and trying to make it a reality is the ultimate test of your growing entrepreneurial skills.
Skilling doesn’t just happen in school. Gain new skills through online learning hubs, short courses, volunteering and entrepreneurial challenges. And get certified to show employers what you can do.
