The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines life skills as “abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demand and challenges of everyday life.” The existing skills mainly fall under four cross-cultural categories:
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Creativity and imagination
• Critical thinking
• Problem-solving
With the world rapidly changing, hard skills can easily become irrelevant as the economy evolves. However, life skills, on the other hand, are not as tangible but are highly beneficial and necessary to help one succeed in life. This success comes in the form of:
Becoming more employable
A study in 2016 revealed that 93% of the 274 employers surveyed indicated that life skills or soft skills are “essential” and “important” factors that influence the prospects of the candidates being hired. Interviewers are not only looking out for excellent academic qualifications, but things like effective communication and collaboration as well. These, and other life skills play a significant role in affecting their judgement of candidates as potential employees.
In another study by Harvard Professor David Deming, it has been highlighted that professions requiring high levels of social interaction in the labour market are growing vastly. This indicates that the demand for employees who have well-developed life skills is on the rise, and will continue to do so in the upcoming years as well. This means that the upcoming workforce would definitely have to have well-developed life skills in order to be considered for these positions, which will be dominating the economy.
Good character development
Going beyond impressing future employers, life skills are foundational in equipping students with tools for personal development, like making friends in school or making decisions for themselves, especially in times where there aren’t people around to guide them.
Other studies have also shown that life skills education has led to an improvement in self-esteem and rise in self-confidence among students, due to the emphasis that life skills place on positive social interactions with others.
Becoming more adaptable
Life skills empower our students to be more flexible. As the world constantly evolves, it is useful for students to be able to think critically and be ready to take on challenges, and also, make full use of opportunities when they arise.
It is imperative that students are prepared with life skills that help them in approaching and facing problems as well as difficult situations that they will encounter in today’s world.
Life skills appear to be valuable qualities to have in all aspects of life, be it in your child’s education, work or even social journey. Thus, it is never too early to start working on developing and honing these skills that will surely come in handy.
What are some life skills that think are important, and how would you work on developing them?