Soft skills project design and delivery toolkit – VET Toolbox

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Soft skills project design and delivery toolkit

Soft skills are an important factor when considering peoples’ employability and job prospects. However, numerous research has highlighted the gap in employers’ expectations and the soft skills of many job entrants. This gap has been widened by the changes connected with the globalisation, accelerated transformation and digitalisation of the market, and more recently with new demands in the post-COVID-19 era, as a result of which the importance of soft skills in education and employment has been further increased.

However, there isn’t a universally accepted definition of soft skills. They are often referred to under different titles, mean different things to different people, and are continuously evolving in responseto the changing work environment and requirements of the workforce. Neither is there a universally accepted way to deliver and assess soft skills.

The British Council believes in the central role soft skills play in improving an individual’s employability and in maximising employment opportunities and over the past years the British Council has managed a number of soft skills projects in different TVET contexts; some have had soft skills as a primary delivery objective, some have incorporated soft skills in wide TVET reform projects.

In the process of developing the toolkit an action research was conducted in to British Councilsupported soft skills development programmes. The purpose of the research was threefold:

to help identify the main problems these different projects and initiatives were trying to solve;
to help identify the framework components required, and;
to review the characteristics and delivery models of the different projects British Council has been delivering across the globe in order to:
- identify success factors;
- lessons learned from the projects, and;
- inform future design and delivery.

Request-based technical support (2017-2022)

We offered technical assistance through short-term interventions that build VET system capacities.

Between 2017 and 2022, VET Toolbox successfully implemented technical interventions in eligible countries. Each intervention, requested by public authorities, social partners, and private institutions, has placed an emphasis on providing expertise to support systemic change, through capacity-building key stakeholders, developing tools, and advising on strategic planning.

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Assistance technique sur demande (2017-2022)

Depuis 2017, VET Toolbox a mis en œuvre avec succès des interventions techniques dans les pays éligibles. Chaque intervention, demandée par les autorités publiques, les partenaires sociaux et les institutions privées, a mis l'accent sur la fourniture d'une expertise pour soutenir un changement systémique, en renforçant les capacités des parties prenantes clés, en développant des outils et en conseillant sur la planification stratégique.

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Supporting the positive effects of European investments (2020-2024)

We implement opportunity-driven actions in 11 Sub-Saharan African countries accompanying European investments to help improve local benefits (e.g., jobs, income, local value chains) by addressing the skills gap.

We deliver demand-driven skills development and VET, catering to investment needs in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, through targeted skills development and VET programmes.

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Funding of innovative pilot projects (2017-2022)

We funded 11 pilot projects that promote inclusion of disadvantages groups in VET.

They focused on youth experiencing or at risk of exclusion, such as women (including young mothers), youth exposed to violence or extremist groups or with a criminal background, internally displaced people and returnees, youth from the poorest households and rural/remote areas, youth with (complex) disabilities, and other vulnerable and disadvantaged people.

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Actions axées sur les opportunités : des investissements de l’UE aux opportunités d’emploi (2020-2024)

Nous menons des actions de développement des compétences et de formation professionnelle axées sur la demande, répondant aux besoins d’investissement dans certains pays d’Afrique subsaharienne, par le biais de programmes ciblés de développement des compétences et de formation professionnelle.

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Financement de projets pilotes innovants (2017-2022)

Ils se sont concentrés sur les jeunes en situation d'exclusion ou à risque d'exclusion, tels que les femmes (y compris les jeunes mères), les jeunes exposés à la violence ou à des groupes extrémistes ou ayant un passé criminel, les personnes déplacées à l'intérieur du pays et les rapatriés, les jeunes des ménages les plus pauvres et des zones rurales/éloignées, les jeunes ayant des handicaps (complexes) et d'autres personnes vulnérables et défavorisées.

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Twinning and mentoring partnerships (2019-2022)

LuxDev and the British Council are working to support the development of TVET in different countries through various partnership agreements. As part of VET Toolbox, LuxDev used a South-South approach to match countries with similar contexts and improve the management of vocational training centres, focusing on public-private collaboration to improve the quality and relevance of training. The British Council set up intercontinental Mentoring Partnerships, bringing together local institutions with a UK TVET college, to focus on employer engagement and bring training programmes closer to the needs of industry.

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Partenariats de jumelage et de mentorat (2019-2022)

LuxDev et le British Council travaillent pour soutenir le développement de l'EFTP dans différents pays à travers des accords de partenariat. Dans le cadre de VET Toolbox, LuxDev a utilisé une approche Sud-Sud pour mettre en relation des pays présentant des contextes similaires et améliorer la gestion des centres de formation professionnelle, en se concentrant sur la collaboration public-privé pour améliorer la qualité et la pertinence de la formation. Le British Council a mis en place des partenariats de mentorat intercontinentaux, mettant en lien des institutions locales avec un collège britannique d'EFTP, pour se concentrer sur l'engagement des employeurs et rapprocher les programmes de formation des besoins de l'industrie.

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