SDG 4 - Highlight your skills

Plan the future (By Estée Janssens on unsplash.com )

Globally, about 773 million adults, 2/3 of whom are women, cannot read or write. The adult literacy rate for the population over 15 years old was 86% in 2018, while the youth literacy rate (15 to 24 years old) was 92%. About half of the illiterate population is in Southwest Asia and about 25% is in Africa (UN, 2020).

Literacy is one of the determinants for young people and adults to obtain a safe and decent job, in addition to the technical and vocational skills that each profession requires. Furthermore, employers look for people with other skills such as the ability to learn and adapt, listen and communicate effectively, think critically, solve problems, work as a team, deal with basic technology, among others (ILO, 2013).

Besides the challenge of a young person to get a first job, he or she must also have the ability to remain employed throughout his or her life. To this, they must be able to acquire new skills, to be self-motivated and to adapt to new situations through lifelong learning (ILO, 2013).

This session has a more reflective nature about, on the one hand, the professional skills that students perceive to be most sought after by the profession they are learning and on the other, about their own strengths and weaknesses, their values and their personal and professional goals. Students will become more aware of the need to reflect on their choices, on their professional and personal future and what they can do to achieve their goals. Besides, they should realise the importance of lifelong learning to develop the competencies and skills needed throughout their life.

Action Areas

Learning Objectives

Cognitive learning objectives:

The learner understands the important role of education and lifelong learning opportunities for all (formal, non-formal and informal learning) as main drivers of sustainable development, for improving people’s lives and in achieving the SDGs.

Socio-emotional learning objectives:

The learner is able to recognize the intrinsic value of education and to analyse and identify their own learning needs in their personal development.
The learner is able to recognize the importance of their own skills for improving their life, in particular for employment and entrepreneurship.

Behavioural learning objectives:

The learner is able to use all opportunities for their own education throughout their life, and to apply the acquired knowledge in everyday situations to promote sustainable development.

Competences

Anticipatory competence
Critical thinking competency
Self-awareness competence

Instructions

Step 1) Introduction (10 minutes)

Start the session explaining the scope of the project or the educational process in question. The SDG 4 refers to quality education – show the short video to introduce the SDG from resources section.
Briefly introduce the SDG through a short introductory reflection based on the vídeo:

Worldwide, 11 out of 100 people cannot read or write, 2/3 of whom are women. Literacy is one of the determinants for people to be able to find a decent job. However, in addition, there are other personal and professional skills that are highly valued in the job market. These skills can be acquired not only in the school context but in all contexts of life where we find ourselves.

What professional and personal skills are required in my profession? What can I do to develop them?

Step 2) Employability Competences (20 minutes)

1 – Introduce the theme of competences, brainstorming with students about which soft skills they consider important for their professional future.

2 – Ask students to take a paper/card with the name of a competence (some ideas in Notes for Educators). They must describe a life situation (school, family, hobbies) where they can develop that competence. Depending on the characteristics of the class, you may ask them to describe a personal or imagined situation. To help, you can give some examples such as: school mobility, group projects, sports or cultural activities ...

Step 3) Debriefing (15 minutes)

Highlight the relationship between these situations and the job market. All students have several life experiences where they develop different skills.

- How did it feel to do this exercise? Was it easy or was it difficult to identify the different situations?

- Have you ever thought about the skills you acquire beyond the school context?

- What importance do you attach to these experiences? Do you think they are important or a waste of time? In the case of a young person without professional experience, how do you think these experiences can be valued by your future employers?

- What are the professions of the future? What do you consider to be the skills that employers are looking for? Do you think you are developing the skills needed?

Step 4) Reflecting self-awareness (20 minutes)

- Ask students to individually reflect on the issues in the document "Self Awareness Reflection - Questions" (Resources Section).

Step 5) Items self-awareness (15 minutes)

After this exercise, ask them to choose an item that represents them. You may have a set of images or objects that students can choose from and / or a set of white sheets and markers where they can write or draw an item of their choice.

- After the selection of the item, students have to explain their choice.

Step 6) Debriefing and conclusion (10 minutes)

- How did it feel to do this exercise? Did you find it easy or difficult?

- Do you think it is important to reflect on these issues? Why?

- Do you think this exercise could be important for your future? How?

Discuss the importance of reflecting on the strengths / weaknesses, on the values and the definition of personal and professional goals. You should also highlight the importance of lifelong learning for the development of the skills and competences needed for their professional future.

- CALL TO ACTION 1

Do a paper or an interview about the professional skills required by future workers. For example, they can do an interview with a company manager. Some examples of questions for the interview:
- What professions/ technical skills do you need most in your company?
- What soft skills and personal skills do you value most in an employee?
- What areas of training for employees do you invest the most in?

- CALL TO ACTION 2

Search for european volunteer projects, exchanges or internships on the web where you can find opportunities to develop your skills (e.g. https://europa.eu/youth/solidarity_en) Another option could be to contact a European volunteer in the city to ask them about their experience and how they have been able to improve their skills.

Requirements

Resources

Click each section below to see all resources available.

Documents

Self Awareness Reflection - Questions

Videos

ODS 4 | Educación de calidad

Notes for Educators

Estimated Total Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes + Call to Action

Preparation

This activity is possible to develop with a minimum of 4 students.
The facilitator must initially select a set of employability skills to work with during the session. The facilitator can explore sustainability skills (systems thinking, anticipatory, normative, strategic thinking, collaboration, critical thinking, self awareness, integrated problem-solving) and/ or other employability skills such as: problem solving, negotiation, communication, creativity, resilience, empathy, leadership, ethical, teamwork, decision-making, time management, flexibility, among others.
Write in a paper/card the name of the competences

Variations

If possible, you can invite an employer or a person in charge of human resources to talk about the profile of people they are looking for in your VET context and which skills are the most valued.

Further Information

Some of the problems associated with sustainability refer to rising sea levels, desertification, poverty, lack of education, pandemics and military conflicts. These have a complex nature, existing and interacting at different scales from local to global. To answer these challenges there are 8 types of sustainability skills that students can develop: system thinking, anticipatory, normative, strategic thinking, collaboration, critical thinking, self-awareness and integrated problem-solving (to know more about each competence check Education for Sustainable Development Goals: Learning Objectives, pp. 10).

Learning and skills acquisition is not limited to a certain time and space in the school. Today, citizens are bombarded with an immense amount of information that they cannot process and they have to deal with highly complex problems related to sustainability.

Lifelong learning is a key path for the reinvention of societies. This is not just about adult education or training, but an attitude that people must acquire out of constant curiosity to understand the world around them. In a constantly changing world, professional activity requires people to be able to adapt and learn continuously. Learning must not depend on just one person, but it must be a collaborative effort between peers in all contexts of a person's life:at home, at school, at work, in the local community clubs, virtual communities among others.

For further information, you also check the following website link:

International Labour Organization - https://www.ilo.org

Source

EMPLAY handbook - https://www.salto-youth.net
https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/self-awareness
https://static.sustainability.asu.edu/schoolMS/sites/4/2018/04/Key_Competencies_Overview_Final.pdf
Fischer, G. (2000). Lifelong learning—more than training. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 11(3), 265-294.