Life Skills for Youth
Developing young people’s life skills to strengthen their autonomy and support their social and professional inclusion
Project period: May 2024 – April 2026
Coordinator: Mission Locale Pays Basque (France)
Partners of the project:Asociacion Caminos (Spain), Izobrazevalni center Geoss d.o.o. (Slovenia), ibis acam Bildungs Gmbh (Austria), Pistes Solidaires (France)
Website: lifeskills4youth.eu
The context:
In a constantly changing world, young people face growing challenges in their life paths and professional integration. Economic, social, and technological transformations demand greater adaptability, the ability to plan for the future, and the development of transversal skills known as “life skills.”
Recent studies, including those by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), show that life skills are essential for enabling young people to access job opportunities and actively participate in society. These skills include managing emotions, decision-making, critical thinking, autonomy, resilience, and interpersonal communication.
Yet, life skills remain underdeveloped in formal education pathways and are often missing from support programs for employment and social integration.
In Europe, the NEET rate (young people Not in Employment, Education, or Training) remains a concern. According to Eurostat, nearly 13.5 million young people face professional and social disengagement. This situation has significant consequences not only for the youth themselves but also for European societies, which must confront challenges of unemployment, precariousness, and social exclusion.
In response to these issues, LS4YOU – Life Skills for Youth aims to fill this gap by offering an innovative approach based on design thinking and positive psychology.
The objectives:
The project’s goal is to equip young people with the tools and methods needed to better understand their aspirations, structure their life plans, and develop skills that help them adapt and succeed in their transition to adulthood and the professional world.
Using a structured methodology, digital tools, and a network of specialized trainers, LS4YOU aims to transform youth support by giving young people an active role in designing their future. This project fits into a European dynamic of social and educational innovation to address new challenges in guidance and professional integration.
– Enable young people to better know themselves and define their life and career goals.
– Develop an innovative support method for professionals working in youth integration.
– Set up an interactive digital platform for learning life skills.
– Train LS4YOU referents who will spread the methodology within youth support organizations.
The results:
– A competency framework on life skills.
– An LS4YOU methodological guide for professionals.
– A digital platform to assess and develop young people’s life skills.
– A guidance document to integrate the LS4YOU method into support organizations.
– A European network of LS4YOU referents.
– 4 dissemination events to ensure the methodology is widely shared.