by Ana Carolina Cassiano, Head of Education Development at AFS Intercultural Programs
Education and training are central to equip youth with skills, including 21st century essential & lifelong global skills, such as: collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, cross-cultural communication, adaptability & flexibility. On the UN’s World Youth Skills Day 2021, AFS is happy to share a practical lesson plan to support teachers to foster these skills with their students and to introduce students to the importance of developing a lens for seeing the world as a global citizen and why change-making matters.
The World Youth Skill Day is marked across the globe on July 15 to celebrate the importance of equipping young people with skills for achieving professional success and personal fulfillment. The United Nations declared July 15 as World Youth Skills Day in 2014 to create more awareness and to raise discussion on the increasing significance of youth skills as a way of ensuring a more sustainable future as highlighted in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Called “Learning how to live and work together,” this lesson plan focuses on fostering appreciation for how we are all unique and diverse yet often share in common more things than we realize, communicating and interacting effectively in different communication styles, and leading a reflection about the Skills, Knowledge and Attitudes that make up Active Global Citizenship. It provides instructions and tips to deliver it both online and in-person.
This resource is part of the AFS Effect+ for the Classroom Educator Toolkit, a modular and flexible curriculum that includes learning goals, discussion guides, step-by-step instructions, and activity sheets for teaching Active Global Citizenship & the SDGs for high school students. The program was piloted with 150 teachers in Brazil, Colombia and New Zealand who were part of the 2020-21 Effect+ for the Classroom Program Capacity-Building for Teachers. Download the Toolkit now.
For more information about the AFS Effect+ Program, click here.