Work Ready Now

Challenge

For over 20 years, EDC has created job opportunities and empowered young people in emerging economies by helping them develop the essential work readiness skills required to earn a successful living.

Work Ready Now (WRN) is a versatile modular skills curriculum designed to develop youth’s in-demand work readiness skills through the support of businesses, governments, and youth-serving organizations. Employers consistently recognize WRN graduates as better prepared for the workplace than other new employees.

To meet the rising demand for cost-effective and innovative approaches, EDC has adapted WRN to equip young people with the green and work readiness skills needed to power emerging and traditional industries. WRN is implemented with youth across a wide range of educational backgrounds, ranging from out-of-school youth to those enrolled in school-based programs at technical institutions, as well as students in general education settings—from middle school through university.

Key Activities

WRN is a customizable, standards-based work readiness curriculum that equips youth with the skills needed to thrive in today’s workplace. Specifically, WRN:

• Offers flexibility and localization: Its modular design allows for adaptation to local environments, enabling alignment with local businesses and youth-serving partners.
• Includes twelve foundational modules (e.g., personal development, leadership, financial literacy, digital literacy, green & blue economies) and optional complementary curricula (e.g., accelerated literacy and numeracy programs, youth mental health curriculum, etc.).
• Integrates work-based learning to make learning come alive outside the classroom and provide real-life exposure to workplaces and employers.
• Provides post-training support and personalized coaching to facilitate the transition from training to employment.
• Scales effectively and has the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of youth when incorporated into national workforce development systems.
• Ensures sustainability by building the capacity of local organizations and government agencies so they can continue to connect with local industries and deliver WRN beyond the life of a project.
• Includes soft skills assessment tools that allow projects to choose the best fit to assess youth gains and outcomes.

Our Impact

• WRN has been implemented in 28 countries and in 21 languages, reaching over 1.5 million youth.
• 5 countries have scaled WRN nationally in their education systems.
• 97% of Rwandan graduates met or exceeded employer expectations.
• 65% of youth in Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia continued onto employment, self-employment, or further education. Of those that found employment, 66% were hired full time.