The PRACTICE Model
The PRACTICE Model: Skills for Success
The PRACTICE Model is a social-emotional skills for employability skills framework developed by Dr. Wendy Cunningham and co-authors published in the Policy Research Working Paper at the World Bank Group, a multilateral financial institution committed to reducing poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development around the world. The PRACTICE Model focuses on social-emotional skills for labor market success and outlines the core set of social-emotional skills that are both valued by employers, malleable via intervention, and linked to long-term school and employment outcomes. Skills in the PRACTICE model are derived from and bring together three distinct areas of literature: skills that employers value, non-cognitive skills that predict positive labor market outcomes, and skills typically targeted by psycho-social prevention and intervention programs.
Breakdown by Domain
Domain Key
Key Features
Context & Culture
- Describes the interplay between context and individual neurobiology and psychology in the development of skills
- Highlights the importance of age-appropriate settings that provide opportunities to learn, practice, and use skills, offering some examples of optimal contexts for different skills at various developmental stages
- Notes the impact of culture and historical time period on when, in which settings, and with what supports children typically learn and develop skills
- Calls for more research on effective skill-building interventions for various cultural contexts and specific populations (e.g., rural youth and youth living in conflict zones)
- Emphasizes the importance of school, neighborhood, and community settings as a contributor to the development of PRACTICE skills
Developmental Perspective
- Acknowledges that skills are learned over time and across developmental stages and suggests that middle childhood is the most optimal stage at which to develop PRACTICE skills
- Describes how each of the eight PRACTICE skills develops across four major stages of development (early years, middle childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood), highlighting which stages are most optimal for building each skill
Associated Outcomes
- Framework is based on a literature review that identified the social-emotional skills most relevant for improving labor market outcomes; however, provides only sporadic examples of specific academic, employment, wellbeing, and life outcomes associated with PRACTICE skills
Available Resources
Support Materials
- No materials provided
Programs & Strategies
- Summarizes the general characteristics and practices of skill-building interventions at three developmental stages (early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence/young adulthood), including specific examples of effective programs/interventions
- Appendix lists 53 skill-building interventions, including age range and primary PRACTICE skills targeted
Measurement Tools
- No information or tools provided
Key Publications
- Guerra, N., Modecki , K., & Cunningham, W. (2014). Developing social-emotional skills for the labor market: The PRACTICE Model (Policy Research Working Paper No. 7123). World Bank Group. Retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/970131468326213915/pdf/WPS7123.pdf
- World Bank website: http://www.worldbank.org/