Soft Skills Training for Youth

This project provides technical assistance to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) to develop training in soft skills that employers need in young workers. This training must work equally well for all youths regardless of their employment barriers, including youths with disabilities. The objective is to have training available on essential workplace skills that does not exclude youth with disabilities so that DOL’s network of employment transition services better serves all youth. AIR developed a curriculum that uses Universal Learning Design principles and prepared detailed technical assistance briefs that assist soft-skills instructors in learning new methods for implementing a highly interactive, student-centered curriculum. In addition, AIR wrote evidence-based issue papers that address specific research-based topics and identify improvements needed to existing programs, policy, and practice to make soft skills training more effective and widely available across the nation’s largest employment training network.