Girls and young women, especially those at the social and economic margins of their communities, often have limited opportunities to acquire the skills they need to complete their education and enter the labor force. As many programs are already demonstrating, soft skills training can address these issues by enhancing young people's sense of agency, which is the ability to see options, make choices, and exert control over one’s own life.

However, no analysis to date has explored the specific features that contribute to educational attainment, livelihood, and employment outcomes. In order to fill this gap, this report examines a representative sample of evaluated programs in order to understand the links between program features and program results, considering both gender-smart and gender-blind approaches.

Investigating Soft Skills Program Features with a Gender Lens: A global review of education and workforce interventions for youth is the result of a collaboration between the International Center for Research on Women and the International Youth Foundation, and aims to map the constellation of features that characterize the most successful soft skill programs for girls and young women.