Life is full of surprises and situations. It’s a process of learning, forgetting, relearning, and unlearning. Each day is a new day as each day brings new learning and experience with it. As humans, everyone has to undergo its ups and downs and learn to make the most out of it. Life is what you make it and believe it. Everyone has their own definition, aspirations, desires, and aims in life. What create the difference in this definition is person’s biological aspects (genes and heredity) psychosocial aspects (environment and exposure). Changes in environment and exposure can change a person’s perception of life situations and the way to deal with them. That’s why now young people (age10 to 24) are now taught life skills. It’s the part of teaching curriculum now.
Let’s first understand what is life skills:
Life skills- life skills are the skills that help people to adapt to situations, develop competence for facing challenges, and promote a good level of mental well-being by making informed decisions in life.
“The abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life”.
WHO (World Health Organization)
“A behaviour change or behaviour development approach designed to address a balance of three areas: knowledge, attitude and skills”
UNICEF
In short life, skills are the skills that make life easier to live.
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Who developed the life skills curriculum
It was developed by UNICEF in close collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sport of Azerbaijan to provide youth new knowledge and skills to learn in a safer environment and use those skills for living life at present and in the future.
Why life skills was needed?
Young generation is the future of any nation. This age can be a deal maker or deal-breaker stage of their life. As in this age people faces a lot more newness in themselves and around them. Sometimes they get stuck or make wrong decisions in their life because of less experience and wisdom. There is no specific syllabus in life, but if people are well equipped with skills they can face any challenge in life.
So objective of teaching life skills was to make youth more empowered, positive and constructive in their life and live in society with harmony. And school was the best place to teach those skills as children go to school and get connected with the teachers emotionally.
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10 core life skills according to the World Health Organization:
1) Self-awareness:
Knowing oneself makes life simpler to live. It is very important for people to know their strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. Without being aware of the problem how one can solve their problem? Being aware of the problem opens the doors for solutions. When people are self-aware, they can make healthy choices and live with ease in the company on themselves.
For example, people who are not less self-aware, find it difficult to reach on time. Sometimes they feel miserable because of this but they don’t know why this is often happening with them. Whereas person who is self-aware, he understands that he is not good at managing time which leads him to reach late to the occasion. Hence he can work on time management.
2) Empathy:
People live in family and society which is full of relatives and people. For living with them in peace they need empathy. Empathy helps the person to understand another person’s emotions and perspective. Which leads to interpersonal relationships. People with poor levels of empathy can often get angry with others. They can act on assumption without knowing the full situation. Whereas a person with a good level of empathy feels that it’s okay to disagree as they both are different personalities.
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3) Creative thinking:
Creative thinking refers to thinking about any idea in a new way. A person can find a different way of doing something or creating something new. This is also known as out-of-the-box thinking. This thinking helps us to make maximum use of minimum resources. People with high creative thinking have changed or influenced the world with their unique ideas. A few examples are phones, trains, and air conditioners.
4) Critical thinking:
Critical thinking is about perceiving an idea or situation objectively. It’s about analyzing the information and knowing all the important aspects before talking any decision. This provides a wider perspective to the person. People with high critical thinking get less emotionally aroused by people as they have a broader perspective on the situation.
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5) Problem solving:
Problem-solving refers to overcoming the perceived obstacles in life. In problem solving person examines the problem closely and finds ways to meet his desired solution with trial and error. Analyzing and synthesizing the problem provides the underlying cause of the problem. This life skill helps the person to do his/her best in life.
6) Decision-making:
Both these skills are interrelated. Every day people have to make decisions which can be from small decisions like what to wear and eat to bigger decisions such as what they want in life and what they want to become. All the decisions can be taken correctly when people are well aware of the pros and cons of any situation. Problem-solving is about finding the solution and decision-making is about making the decision that is more suitable for people at that moment in time. People with poor decision-making have many more regrets in life than people with better decision-making skills.
7) Effective communication:
Language is the medium to express feelings and understand another person’s ideas, feelings, and opinions. Expressing feelings in words is very difficult for some people, which leads to many problems such as poor relationships and less opportunity. They are in constant fear of being judged. Whereas people with a good level of communication feel less burdened with unresolved emotions. By learning this life skill person can become easygoing.
8) International relationship:
When two people live together they have to understand each other’s need and ways to deal with it. Without this life can become a very painful experience for them. Teaching these skills enables the youth you know how to co-exist peacefully and work in collaboration.
9) Coping with stress:
When people perceive something bigger than their potential they experience stress. It is very common to feel stressed in day-to-day life. Better Coping strategies bring stability to life. People with better Coping skills candidates find out the cause of stress and how to manage it. These life skills help people to function well in day-to-day life.
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10) Coping with emotions:
Emotion is an integral part of people’s lives. These life skills, teach young people how to manage and control emotions such as anger, guilt, and shame. Also, how to enhance happiness and peace. People who are good at emotional balance experience stress less as they are able to manage it in the initial stage.
World Health Organization has categorized life skills into 3 components:
- Critical thinking skills/Decision-making skills.
- Interpersonal/Communication skills.
- Coping and self-management skills.
Practicing like skills can decrease stress and enhance well-being. Enhancing life skills with interesting activities can increase the retention of information.
You can read some books, on the topic of life skills
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