FHI 360 National Institute for Work and Learning

On-the-job Training

• Positive Youth Development Principles and Relationships
  • Understand adolescent development and build an effective relationship with each young person using positive youth development principles that help young people foster resilience, build on strengths, and increase their own sense of agency.
  • Work effectively with young people and adult supporters from diverse backgrounds.
  • Understand the impact adverse childhood experiences and inequality play in the lives of youth and use youth development practices to empower youth.
  • Create safe, youth-friendly, inclusive spaces for young people.
• Coaching
  • Use strong coaching skills to support a young person’s growth (e.g., flow theory, active listening, collaborative problem solving) to help youth stay engaged, grow, and learn to advocate for what they need.
  • Use motivational interviewing skills when needed to support behavior change.
  • Have a basic familiarity of adolescent mental health issues and common therapeutic counseling interventions.
  • Use effective strategies to support a young person in crisis, resolve conflict, or de-escalate a situation.
• Planning and Support
  • Help a young person identify their interests, strengths, and challenges and develop a plan to achieve personal, education, and/or employment goals.
  • Understand the landscape of internal and external youth resources and engage young people in positive youth development opportunities and supportive services.
  • Help youth build a support network, including family members, critical adult allies, and other social capital (community connections, career network, etc.).
• Group Facilitation
  • Help youth design, plan and lead activities.
  • Use strong group facilitation skills for a variety of purposes (youth activity, workshop, meeting, etc.).
• Career Pathways
  • Help youth assess their career interests and employment readiness skills.
  • Connect young people to career pathway opportunities.
  • Teach youth critical career pathway persistence skills and help them problem-solve barriers that stand in the way of success.
• Case Management
  • Gather, analyze, and use information from a variety of sources, with the level of privacy and confidentiality needed. Maintain high quality, timely case files and case management system records.
  • Maintain strong relationships with and across service providers, coordinate services, monitor effectiveness, and problem-solve collaboratively.
  • Support organizational learning and reporting by providing individual and program level updates to supervisors, including information on youth progress, trends, and potential service, program or partnership development needs.
• Leveraging Technology
  • Use productivity, communication, and social media tools to manage youth development work.
  • Integrate technology use into programming as a way to engage youth and build their skills; for example; videos, photo journals, digital art galleries, virtual services, etc.
• Understanding How Youth Organizations Work
  • Demonstrate a basic understanding of how youth-serving organizations and agencies work (how they are funded, managed, and governed; how partnerships, programs and services are developed and evaluated).
  • Use the language of the youth development, non-profit and workforce development field effectively.
  • Analyze a youth program/organization budget; create and manage a budget.
  • Use current role to support organizational development and institutional change (program design and evaluation, race/equity/inclusion work, partnership development, resource development, etc.).
• Professionalism, Professional Development and Self Care
  • Exhibit professionalism and model it for young people; work ethically and in compliance with privacy, mandated reporting, youth labor, and other regulations.
  • Work independently and as part of a group or team, including cross-agency and cross-provider collaborations.
  • Manage the demands of youth work and your own well-being using strong self-care practices, balancing accessibility with appropriate boundaries, and developing coping skills for job- related triggers.
  • Maximize opportunities to grow professionally in the current role and in the career field; use the youth development apprenticeship as a springboard to other positions.