Soft skills training in Indonesia

Soft skills training is one of development activities that already run regularly in several areas of Indramayu, West Java, Indonesia. The Soft skills trainings are a part of the project Empower Youth for Work, aiming towards empowering young people socio-economically in rural and climate change affected areas in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Pakistan.

In May 2019, the soft skill training was conducted in Indonesia, in which 62 youths were trained. Through this training youth received about 15 lessons covering topics such as: How to Build Self Confidence, Time Management, Understanding and Managing Emotions, Respect Yourself and Others, Conflict Management, Sexually Transmitted Infections-Drugs-HIV/AIDS and other.

The topics that are covered in the skills training are sometimes sensitive, which is why it is important to create a interactive approach making sure the participants feel safe and comfortable sharing, participating and enjoying the training. Opening up and interacting with other youths is a great way of trying to address sensitive issues and get the participants discuss them. At the end of a 5 days training, a final session is held, aiming for discernment and training closure, and look back at the participant's favorite lessons.

The "How to build self-confidence" lesson got a lot of good feedback, and the youth expressed their gratitude on realizing that, their position or the place that they live, does not make them less "worthy" and that everyone has talents they can use and work to improve. Another lesson that received good feedback was the "Sexually transmitted infections-Drugs-HIV/AIDS", the participants expressed how this lesson was interesting, because they realized what the situation is in their area. They also learned that many youths do not have a safe sex behavior and mentioned that they haven't had access to this kind of information before.