This is the new skills gap for young people in the age of COVID-19

With the COVID-19 pandemic causing a projected loss of 195 million jobs, dismaying interruptions to education and a disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups, preparing young people to earn and thrive in a post-COVID world requires immediate attention.

The technical skills required for most sectors quickly become outdated owing to rapid changes in technology and the spread of automation. The World Economic Forum projects that by 2022 at least 54% of all employees will need reskilling and upskilling to respond to changing work requirements. Young people need the skills to rapidly learn, adapt, practice resiliency and take advantage of entrepreneurial mindsets, to respond to this reality with the ingenuity to earn an income.

This changing environment calls for a transformation in how we think about learning. Young people must “learn to learn” in order to develop the abilities required to gain new skills and adapt, which will help them secure work opportunities. They must also learn to discern reliable information to navigate today’s information landscape fraught with false and misleading information.

To “learn to earn”, policy-makers and education and youth development practitioners must expand skills frameworks to include learning to learn and learning to discern as fundamental soft skills that can help young people thrive in a rapidly changing world of work.

At IREX, our work with students, young job seekers, young professionals and entrepreneurs gives us insight into what youth value most for successful transitions into earning. Here are our recommendations for policy-makers and youth practitioners as they invest in learning:

Employers overwhelmingly agree that young employees need soft skills, such as communication, creative problem-solving and entrepreneurial thinking. International development practitioners offer soft skill curricula to support youth in education and non-formal training programmes, but lack two crucial competencies for youth today.

Skill #1: Learn to learn: to participate and thrive in a rapidly evolving world, youth must become power learners

“Learning to learn” helps young people rapidly gain skills and knowledge to adapt to changes and succeed. This skill is particularly important as the COVID-19 pandemic causes dramatic shifts in the work opportunities available.

When it comes to learning performance, 40% is due to metacognition – organizing and guiding one’s own learning processes, thinking and actions – but most teaching methods do not prioritize these skills as myths persist that learning relies on innate intelligence, rather than on developing skills and habits.

Our Power Learning Tool offers a science-backed approach to help individuals build metacognition and learn to learn. It supports individuals to take charge of their learning journey by applying a growth mindset which strengthens their agility and openness to learning. This helps them guide their own learning and translate this knowledge into action.

We used the Power Learning approach to develop the skills of young workers at a startup in Nigeria over a six-month period. The training drew from our customizable Employee Essential Skills Suite, which unlocks employees’ potential by strengthening vital soft skills and cultivating an inclusive learning-oriented workplace. Training participants and their managers cited crucial performance gains including more effective teamwork; increased adaptability; and stronger communication, collaboration and problem-solving within the team resulting in improved responsiveness for clients.

Skill #2: Learn to discern: in a flood of information, youth must discern what is factual and reliable

During the COVID-19 pandemic, young people are weighing information, including misleading information about health risks, to make decisions about their careers. Healthy information engagement skills are necessary for young people to learn effectively on their own and prepare to become resourceful employees, leaders and entrepreneurs.

Our Learn to Discern (L2D) approach draws on behavioural science to help participants build awareness of their cognitive process and emotional impulses. Disinformation and misinformation can negatively impact real-life decisions and actions, target emotional triggers and feed confirmation bias. When young people receive information about exciting income-generation opportunities, they may not have the healthy information engagement skills to check those sources before spreading the information or pursuing opportunities.

The L2D approach has been implemented in 11 countries and skills tests show statistically significant improvements. Participants are nearly twice as good at identifying misinformation. L2D improves the ability to identify and resist manipulative content, promotes healthy and responsible engagement with information and inspires people to call out misinformation when they see it.

Equipped with these critical skills and with the entrepreneurial mindsets to take advantage of available opportunities, all youth, especially those from marginalized groups, can overcome societal messages that dictate which areas of learning and earning are beyond their reach.

These skills require new ways of understanding and shaping cognitive processes. To help youth learn to earn, instructors, educators, and curriculum designers must embed learning to learn and learning to discern pedagogies into training content so that learners intentionally develop associated values and habits. They must also prioritize cultivating entrepreneurial mindsets that will help young people identify and take advantage of earning opportunities.

On a practical level, this includes:

Practitioners can prepare young people for today’s challenges by prioritizing reflective practice in learning, intentionally structuring learning journeys over time and through student-led, instructor-supported problem-based learning. These approaches will build the leaders we need and will prepare all adolescents and young adults to learn, discern and earn.