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.

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Resources

Here are a few of our resources on out-of-school learning. To see more, visit our Resources section.

Websites

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.

Curricula

This three-part series, funded by the National Science Foundation, features engaging activities that bring middle school youth outdoors to explore the natural world using observation, digital photo

Reports

Technology has proven to be one of the missing links in order to guarantee educational and workforce improvement in developing countries.

Curricula

The following stories were developed through the support of USAID’s Core Education Skills for Liberian Youth (CESLY) program.

Reports

The proliferation of new technologies is changing the way we live, learn, and work. This white paper examines the complex and interconnected challenges related to workforce development, economics, education, equity, and ethics that our society must address to ensure our workforce is future-ready.

Fact sheets

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.

Reports

This report outlines the need to work together with new and unlikely allies, other than education actors alone, to reimagine how our interconnected systems—health, education, economic development, and the protection of our planet—can work toward Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education and beyond.

Reports

Transforming the Education Workforce lays out three evidence-based visions for strengthening the education workforce, creating more collaborative learning teams, and transforming education systems into learning systems.

Reports

This report details the work of EDC’s Proyecto METAS to improve education for employment, learning, and success in Honduras. Specific challenges to program implementation are discussed, as are innovative solutions.

Reports

The Committee on Successful Out-of-School STEM Learning, appointed by the National Research Council’s Board on Education, was charged with identifying effective out-of-school STEM settings and prog