Powerful learning experiences often happen outside of the school day. EDC builds, implements, and evaluates out-of-school and nonformal programs that deliver core civic, educational, and life skills to young people in diverse environments.
In the United States, EDC’s support for out-of-school time (OST) and nonformal learning leverages children’s and youth’s strengths to help them succeed at school, engage in their communities, and lead productive and healthy lives. We design, evaluate, and provide technical assistance on high-quality OST programs that prepare young people for success—whether pursuing social and academic enrichment after school or leaving school and starting a first job.
Internationally, EDC develops and implements programs that support educational and economic opportunities for out-of-school youth. Working within the unique context of each country, we partner with governments, industry, and nongovernmental organizations to provide young people with the skills, knowledge, and opportunities they need to be market-ready and contribute to society.
Related Content
EDC Talks: How Do You Develop High-Quality Out-of-School-Time Programs?
Children can learn a lot from programs that take place outside of school hours.
4 Ways to Strengthen Youth Programs in Conflict and Crisis Areas
Building youth programs in unstable regions can be challenging. Here are four ideas for practitioners.
A Success Story in Senegal
Meet Adama Diedhiou, a participant in EDC’s workforce development program in Senegal.
A Second Chance at School in Mali
In Mali, accelerated education is helping thousands of children get back to school.
3 Ways to Stop the Summer Slide
Want to help kids keep learning this summer? Here are some tips for parents and caregivers.
New Entrepreneurs Launched in Rwanda
EDC’s workforce development efforts in Rwanda are helping young people build the skills for work.
Projects
Resources
Here are a few of our resources on out-of-school learning. To see more, visit our Resources section.
The investigations in Explore It! provide an experiential foundation for the development of concepts aligned with the national standards that are addressed in formal school curricula. Explore It!
EDC’s Work Ready Now (WRN) delivers effective work readiness preparation to youth around the world. Based on international standards, WRN helps young people in emerging economies develop the soft skills and work readiness skills needed to succeed in earning a living.
This guide provides an overview of IRI as a methodology, and discusses its feasibility and applicability in a range of contexts.
This report is part of a series of publications summarizing what is being learned “on the ground” from projects in more than a dozen countries, and is the product of the pilot phase of the first EQ
EDC’s media literacy toolbox includes activities, handouts, and curricular resources to support media literacy education in a variety of settings—classroom or afterschool program, low-tech or high-tech, children or teens.
These free online training courses are designed to help entrepreneurs learn what they need to know to establish and grow a business. Users learn at their own pace in their own time.
This report presents findings from the evaluation of the 21st CCLC Program grantees who were active during 2018–2019.
This learning series summarizes the results of participant studies in the USAID Advancing Youth Project in Liberia. The studies explored topics in alternative basic education such as leadership,
The findings from this research seek to identify opportunities and constraints for employment and self-employment for Liberian youth.
This paper explores how the Government of Mali, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development and Education Development Center, Inc., used innovative tools and methods (including georeferencing, mapping, and school/village surveys) to better understand the twin challenges posed by home-school distance and inefficient teacher distribution in rural communities and why Mali chose an old-school solution: one-room, multi-grade schools equipped with trained teachers and appropriate materials.