By: The YouthForesight Team


2024 was a significant year for youth development programs, marked by substantial progress and collaboration.

Initiatives across education, employment, entrepreneurship, and digital skills training have been pivotal in preparing youth for a rapidly evolving future.

This year, more than 200 resources were published and shared on the YouthForesight platform, made possible through the valuable contributions of our knowledge partners. These include the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNICEF, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), A2i, AmaliTech, the Geneva Graduate Institute, Plan International, SOS Children’s Villages, Youth Business International (YBI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and other dedicated YouthForesight partners.

Notably, the knowledge resources that YouthForesight has gathered emerged on these major themes –  Digital Skills and Jobs in the Digital Economy, Decent Jobs for Youth in the Green Economy, Economic and Employment Policies for Youth Job Creation, Foundation and Core Skills for the 21st Century, Gender Equality, Young Person with Disability, and Youth Entrepreneurship and Self-employment.

These collaborative efforts have significantly enhanced the youth development ecosystem by providing practitioners and young people with access to essential tools, opportunities, and support networks. 

In 2025, we aim to build on this momentum by curating valuable partnership engagement opportunities. We warmly invite organizations to partner with us in these efforts.

Top most accessed resources

Emerging as top-accessed resources this year are YouthForesight’s webinars on the topics of digital solutions on youth employment, skills signaling, market-oriented training, and inclusion of youth with disabilities. Microsoft’s AI Trainer Toolkit and ILO’s Guide to Youth Rights at Work were also popular with our network.

Notable resources that have been widely accessed include, Plan International's Youth Employment and Enterprise Programme Evaluation learning brief, The Active Labor Market Programs report by the ILO and the World Bank, and the ILO's policy brief on the urgent need to create decent jobs for rural youth.

To learn more about what this year has been for youth development, check out the list of resources below for different thematic areas.

2024 List of YouthForesight Knowledge Resources

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Digital Skills and Jobs in the Digital Economy

• UN - A Digital Future For All event
• ILO - Skills for Employment - Global Public-Private Knowledge Sharing Platform
• ILO - Observatory on AI and Work in the Digital Economy
• ILO - Balancing Act: The Role of Digital Platforms in Shaping the Conditions of Creative Work
• ITC-ILO - Digitalization of TVET System
• ITU - AI for Good Impact Report
• UNICEF - Digitally powered 'learning to earning'
• Genration Unlimited (GenU) - Time to Act: Preparing Youth for Work in an AI-Powered World
• FAO - Assessing the digital readiness and communication ecosystem of rural youth
• Plan International - ​​Building Digital Resilience: Girls and young women demand a safer digital future
• UNICEF - Making Digital Learning Work Lessons from the UNICEF–Akelius Digital Learning Initiative in 12 countries
• UNDP - How Digital is Transforming the Lives of Young People in Small Island Developing States
• UNDP - Emerging practices to improve access to and working conditions on digital labour platforms for refugees and host communities
• International Development Research Centre (IDRC) - AI in Africa: The state and needs of the ecosystem Diagnostic and solution set for skills

Decent Jobs for Youth in the Green Economy

• ILO - Skills for a Green Transition: Solutions for youth on the move
• ILO - Elevating the potential of rural youth: Paths to Decent Jobs and Sustainable Future
  
• ITC-ILO - Certification Programme for Green Business Trainers
• Word Bank Group - Choosing our Future: Education for Climate Action
• UNDP - Beyond vulnerability: A guidance note on youth, climate, peace and security
• OECD - The geography of green innovation hubs in OECD regions
• International Development Research Centre (IDRC) - A Green and Inclusive Future for Youth and Women in South Africa: A Multistakeholder Dialogue

Economic and Employment Policies for Youth Job Creation

• ILO - Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024
• ILO - Global Wage Report 2024-25: Is wage inequality decreasing globally?
• ILO - Youth employment: Why are anxieties among young people growing even as youth unemployment rates fall?
• J-PAL - Policy Brief: Public works programs and labor market outcomes
• J-PAL - Improving job seekers’ employment and earnings through credible skills signals
• J-PAL - Market access: Connecting firms and entrepreneurs to markets to spur business and job growth
• ITC-ILO - Designing Public Employment Programmes
• A2i -International Job Market Demand  Analysis: A Draft Report Bangladesh, Access to Information
• World YMCA - Future Ready: Reimagining Meaningful Work for Young People

Foundation and Core Skills for the 21st Century

• ITC-ILO - Learning Analytics Fundamentals
• ITC-ILO - Artificial Intelligence Masterclass
• ITU - Digital Skills Toolkit
• ITU - ITU Academy Training Centers
• Teach for All -Learning and Insights Hub
• SAP - SAP Learning
• CourseOnline - Browse upskilling courses
• Blossom Academy - Tools for data
• Blossom Academy - Foundations of Data Science: A 5-Part Series
• William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan - Tools and training for business success
• International Trade Center (ITC) - New ITC e-learning platform offers 5-minute modules by International Trade Center
• Geneva Graduate Institute - A guide for policy-makers: Evaluating rapidly developing technologies including AI, large language models and beyond

Gender Equality

• UN Women - Gender Equality Accelerators
• UN Women - Facts and figures: Ending violence against women
• FAO - Gender equality and social inclusion for youth organizations
• Geneva Graduate Institute - AI and Digital Inequities
• UNICEF - In Pursuit of Happiness: Girls' striking optimism in a time of crisis
• Save the Children - Girls Decide: Manual for training female facilitators
• Wold Bank Group - Gender Strategy 2024-2030: Accelerate gender equality to end poverty on a liveable planet
• J-PAL - Digital Financial Services and Women’s Empowerment: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania
• Youth Co:Lab - ​​Breaking Barriers, Building Successful Businesses: A Gender Inclusivity Toolkit for Young Entrepreneur
• UNDP - Bridging Gender Gaps with a Sustainable Care Economy: Investment Opportunities and Challenges
• ILO - Women in Business: How employer and business membership organizations drive gender equality
• ILO - The impact of care responsibilities on women’s labour force participation
• ILO - ​​Women in Business: How employer and business membership organizations drive gender equality

Young Person with a Disability

• UNICEF - Social + Behavior Change Disability Toolkit
• Oxfam - Inclusive Learning Guide
• ITC-ILO - Disability in the Workplace
• ILO - Supporting young persons with disabilities in the future of work
• ILO - Making TVET and skills systems inclusive of persons with disabilities
• ILO - "Business leadership on disability rights as human rights", 3rd African BHR Forum
• UNFPA - Believe in Better: Shaping the future through the meaningful engagement of young persons with disabilities

Youth Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment

• Youth Business International (YBI) - Youth Entrepreneurship Framework
• Youth Business International (YBI) - Financial Health for Young Entrepreneurs
• Youth Business International (YBI) - Models for scaling the impact of youth entrepreneurship programmes
• Youth Business International (YBI) - Entrepreneurship within reach: Connecting young people to opportunity
• Youth Business International (YBI) - Policy Paper: Alternative Financing for Informal Businesses to Propel Youth Entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Youth Co:Lab - Leveraging Social Entrepreneurship for Youth Employment, Skills, and Entrepreneurship
• Youth Co:Lab - Inclusive Youth Entrepreneurship Guidebook for Entrepreneur Support Organizations in Asia and the Pacific
• Youth Co:Lab - From Margins to Mainstream: Inclusive Youth Entrepreneurship in the Asia-Pacific Region
• Youth Co:Lab - State of Youth Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in Pakistan
• UNCDF - Pacific Islands Entrepreneurship Expo: Building a Sustainable Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in the Pacific Islands
• FAO - Youth agripreneurship and pathways of change - Results and lessons learned from Guatemala and Uganda
• Tony Elumelu Foundation - 2024 TEF Flagship Masterclass Session- Leveraging Technology for your Business
• Save the Children - Entrepreneurship-focused Socio-Emotional Skills Learning (ESEL) Manuals

Other resources from various themes

• Generation Unlimited (GenU) - imaGen Ventures Implementation Guide
• UNICEF - End Child Violence
• World YMCA - Crisis of Opportunity: Young people navigating the ‘New Work Order’
• Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth - Youth2030: Progress Report 2023
• J-PAL - Digital financial services to improve formalized access and inclusion
• ITC-ILO - E-learning Course on Forced Labour
• ITC-ILO - Decent Jobs for Rural Youth
• ITC-ILO - Data Collection and Research on Child Labour and Forced Labour
• ITC-ILO - Certification Course on developing an impactful community of practice
• ITC-ILO - Ending Violence and Harassment in the World of Work
• ITC-ILO - Monitoring and evaluation certification programme
• FAO - E-learning courses on the 21 SDG indicators under FAO custodianship
• FAO - Youth-sensitive value chain analysis and development - Guidelines for practitioners
• World Bank Group - Fostering Inclusive Youth Leaders: A Review of Key Findings and Best Practices
• OECD - Innovative tools for the direct assessment of social and emotional skills Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

By tackling critical global challenges and empowering youth with innovation and resilience, 2024 has laid the groundwork for a brighter, more inclusive future.

As we step into 2025, the momentum built this year will drive us forward—scaling impact and ensuring young people remain at the forefront of creating a sustainable and equitable world. YouthForesight will continue to champion this vision by curating valuable resources, fostering knowledge-sharing engagements, and supporting youth development initiatives.

We invite you—our partners and global community—to join us in this journey. If you have insights, experiences, or expertise in youth skilling and development, we encourage you to share them with us. Your contributions can empower and inspire young people across the world as they shape the future, one bold step at a time.

 

For partnership inquiries, email us at youthforesight@gmail.com.