Life Skill & Employability Skills for Students

Before speaking about life skills, let us have a look at execution function, the precursor to life skills.

Executive function refers to the processes that involve managing thoughts, actions and emotions to achieve goals. The skills make it possible to consider alternative perspectives and respond to changing circumstances (cognitive flexibility) to keep information in one’s mind so it can be used (working memory) and to resist automatic and impulsive behavior (inhibitory control) so one can engage in goal-directed reasoning and problem solving.

Higher executive function skills have been linked to success in school and life—health and wealth in adulthood—and have been shown to be even more important than IQ for future success. Science suggests us that developing these skills is critical in the youngest years.

Life skills are based on executive functions; they bring together our social, emotional and cognitive capacities to problem solving and achieving goals. Studies have found they are critical to success in school and life.

Life skills are an integral part of the development of any individual. Students should be empowered with appropriate life skills early in life so that they succeed later in life. Life skills are regarded as essential skills that pull together the cognitive, emotional and social capacities of an individual to solve a range of problems and achieve goals. A student needs to acquire certain essential life skills in order to learn beyond academics and to lead a peaceful, happy and content life.

So, what are the essential life skills required for students?

• Perspective Taking
  • This involves understanding what others think and feel and forms the basis of children’s understanding of the intentions of parents, teachers and friends. Children with this skill are less likely to get involved in conflicts.
• Communication
  • It is one of the crucial skills that helps build a promising future. Students need some good personal interaction every single day to acquire healthy social-emotional skills that encompasses the potential to understand others and communicate with them in the best possible manner.
• Making Connections
  • This Life Skill is at the heart of learning: figuring out what’s similar, what’s different, and sorting them into categories. Making unusual connections is at the core of creativity and moves children beyond knowing information to using information well.
• Decision-making skills
  • From a young age, students should be taught to arrive at decisions on their own. They should acquire the knowledge to take simple yet wise decisions quickly.
• Setting priorities
  • In this day of technology and gadgets, students should know to set their priorities. They must know what is important, what is trivial and where and with whom they should spend most of their valuable energy. To do so, they should have good reasoning capabilities. This is an important life skill.
• Critical Thinking
  • This changing world demands everyone to think critically. It is about thinking independently, responsibly and productively.
• Taking on Challenges
  • Children who take on challenges instead of avoiding or simply coping with them achieve better in school and in life.
• Self-Directed, Engaged Learning
  • By setting goals and strategies for learning, children become attuned and better prepared to change as the world changes. This helps children foster their innate curiosity to learn and helps them realize their potential.
• Self –defense
  • The first and foremost priority in life is safety and security. Teaching students this crucial life skill makes them independent and safe.
• Focus & self control
  • Students should have control and focus on their habits, routines and schedules. Only then, they will feel secure and confident about their learning, life and success.
• Problem Solving
  • When confronting problems, students need skills to define the problem, find an apt solution and put it to use effectively. Problem solving skills help children to handle each and every problem or challenge positively. With this skill, they can identify the problem, interpret it and arrive at the best solutions in the quickest time possible