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We need to increase our life skills at every stage of life, so learning them may he part of early childhood education, of primary and secondary education and of adult learning groups.
Its importance in learning
Life skills can be put into the categories that the Jacques Delors report suggested; it spoke of four pillars of education, which correspond to certain kinds of life skills: Earning to know: Thinking abilities: such as problem-solving, critical thinking, decision-making, understanding consequences.
Learning to be: Personal abilities: such as managing stress and feelings, self-awareness, self-confidence.
Learning to live together Social abilities: such as communication, negotiation, teamwork
Learning to do: Manual skills: practising know-how required for work and tasks
In today's world all these skills are necessary, in order to face rapid change in society. This means that it is important to know how to go on learning as we require new skills for life and work. In addition, we need to know how to cope with the flood of information and turn it into useful knowledge. We also need to learn how to handle change in society and in our own lives.
Its nature
Life skills are both concrete and abstract-practical skills can be learned directly, as a subject. For example, a learner can take a course in laying bricks and learn that skill. Other life skills, such as self-confidence, self-esteem, and skills for relating to others or thinking critically cannot be taught in such direct ways. They should be part of any learning process, where teachers or instructors are concerned that learners should not just learn about subjects, but learn how to cope with life and make the most of their potential.
So these life skills may be learnt when learning other things. For example:
Learning literacy may have a big impact on self-esteem, on critical thinking or on communication skills;
Learning practical skills such as driving, healthcare or tailoring may increase self-confidence, teach problem- solving processes or help in understanding consequences.
Whether this is true depends on the way of teaching -what kinds of thinking, relationship-building and communication the teacher or facilitator models themselves and promotes among the learners.
Progress towards this goal
It would require measuring the individual and collective progress in making the most of learning and of life, or assessing how far human potential is being realized, or estimating how well people cope with change. It is easier to measure the development of practical skills, for instance by counting the number of students who register for vocabonal skills courses. However, this still may not tell us how effectively these skills are being used.
The psycho-social skills cannot easily be measured by tests and scores, but become visible in changed behavior. Progress in this area has often been noted by teachers on reports which they make to the parents of their pupils. The teachers experience of life, of teaching and of what can be expected from education in the broadest sense serve as a standard by which the growth and development of individuals can be assessed to some extent. This kind of assessment is individual and may never appear in international tables and charts.
Current challenges
The current challenges relate to these difficulties:
We need to recognize the importance of life skills-both practical and psycho-social-as part of education which leads to the full development of human potential and to the development of society;
The links between psycho-social skills and practical skills must be more clearly spelled out, so that educators can promote both together and find effective ways to do this;
Since life skills are taught as part of a wide range of subjects, teachers need to have training in how to put them across and how to monitor learners' growth in these areas;
In designing curricula and syllabuses for academic subjects, there must be a balance between content teaching and attention to the accompanying life skills;
