For youth to grow into well-functioning adults, it is essential that they learn key life skills such as critical and creative thinking, decision-making, and effective communication, as well as skills for developing self esteem and healthy relationships, navigating harmful gender norms, and accessing health care. While important for all young people around the world, these skills are particularly critical for adolescents who lack accurate information and guidance for making consequential decisions such as becoming sexually active, staying in school, and preventing or responding to abuse. Many children, however, do not have access to education that includes life skills training.
We layer life skills education onto many of our programs for young people, and deliver these in club-like settings in and out of school, as well as through national school curricula.
We also work with partners, including ministries of education, schools, and nongovernmental organizations, to develop life skills curricula and training approaches and help programs integrate and teach life skills to students in both formal schools and non-formal settings.
Our life skills education approach makes curricula more relevant to the needs of all youth and vulnerable adults, whose grasp of learning content increases dramatically when it is linked directly to their everyday lives. Learners acquire a range of skills to live effectively in society, as well as specific technical and occupational skills including how to set up and run small businesses and use sustainable agriculture methods.
Healthier children stay in school longer, learn more, and as a result, become more productive adults. We are committed to developing and scaling programs that meet the various health needs of children and their families.
We build on school curricula to inform students about their health and remove barriers to health services. We help ministries of education develop HIV prevention and life skills education curricula. We use schools as entry points to deliver integrated services including primary health care screening and referrals; reproductive health information; nutrition; and psychosocial support.
The use of clean cooking technology is critical to health. We implement activities in school kitchens to improve staff health and reduce the environmental consequences of traditional wood- and coal-burning stoves. We train students in clean cookstove technology so they can apply what they learn at home, thus improving the environment and the health of their families and communities.
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World Education strives to build lasting relationships with partners across diverse geographic regions and technical sectors to produce better education outcomes for all.
