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Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable humans to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life. This concept is also termed as psychosocial competency. The subject varies greatly depending on social norms and community expectations but skills that function for well-being and aid individuals to develop into active and productive members of their communities are considered as life skills.

Enumeration and categorization

The UNICEF Evaluation Office suggests that "there is no definitive list" of psychosocial skills; nevertheless UNICEF enumerates psychosocial and interpersonal skills that are generally well-being oriented, and essential alongside literacy and numeracy skills. Since it changes its meaning from culture to culture and life positions, it is considered a concept that is elastic in nature. But UNICEF acknowledges social and emotional life skills identified by Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Life skills are a product of synthesis: many skills are developed simultaneously through practice, like humor, which allows a person to feel in control of a situation and make it more manageable in perspective. It allows the person to release fears, anger, and stress & achieve a qualitative life.

For example, decision-making often involves critical thinking ("what are my options?") and values clarification ("what is important to me?"), ("How do I feel about this?"). Ultimately, the interplay between the skills is what produces powerful behavioral outcomes, especially where this approach is supported by other strategies.

Life skills can vary from financial literacy, through substance-abuse prevention, to therapeutic techniques to deal with disabilities such as autism.

Core skills

The World Health Organization in 1999 identified the following core cross-cultural areas of life skills:

• decision-making and problem-solving;
• creative thinking (see also: lateral thinking) and critical thinking;
• communication and interpersonal skills;
• self-awareness and empathy;
• assertiveness and equanimity; and
• resilience and coping with emotions and coping with stress.

UNICEF listed similar skills and related categories in its 2012 report.

Life skills curricula designed for K-12 often emphasize communications and practical skills needed for successful independent living as well as for developmental-disabilities/special-education students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP).

There are various courses being run based on WHO's list supported by UNFPA. In Madhya Pradesh, India, the programme is being run with Government to teach these through Government Schools.

Skills for work and life

Skills for work and life, known as technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is comprising education, training and skills development relating to a wide range of occupational fields, production, services and livelihoods. TVET, as part of lifelong learning, can take place at secondary, post-secondary and tertiary levels, and includes work-based learning and continuing training and professional development which may lead to qualifications. TVET also includes a wide range of skills development opportunities attuned to national and local contexts. Learning to learn and the development of literacy and numeracy skills, transversal skills and citizenship skills are integral components of TVET.

Parenting: a venue of life skills nourishment

Life skills are often taught in the domain of parenting, either indirectly through the observation and experience of the child, or directly with the purpose of teaching a specific skill. Parenting itself can be considered as a set of life skills which can be taught or comes natural to a person. Educating a person in skills for dealing with pregnancy and parenting can also coincide with additional life skills development for the child and enable the parents to guide their children in adulthood.

Many life skills programs are offered when traditional family structures and healthy relationships have broken down, whether due to parental lapses, divorce, psychological disorders or due to issues with the children (such as substance abuse or other risky behavior). For example, the International Labour Organization is teaching life skills to ex-child laborers and at-risk children in Indonesia to help them avoid and to recover from worst forms of child abuse.

Models: behavior prevention vs. positive development

While certain life skills programs focus on teaching the prevention of certain behaviors, they can be relatively ineffective. Based upon their research, the Family and Youth Services Bureau, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advocates the theory of positive youth development (PYD) as a replacement for the less effective prevention programs. PYD focuses on the strengths of an individual as opposed to the older decrepit models which tend to focus on the "potential" weaknesses that have yet to be shown. "..life skills education, have found to be an effective psychosocial intervention strategy for promoting positive social, and mental health of adolescents which plays an important role in all aspects such as strengthening coping strategies and developing self-confidence and emotional intelligence..."

See also

• Attitude
• Emotional intelligence
• Emotional literacy
• Emotional self-regulation
• Gelotology
• Hope theory
• Impermanence
• Kindness
• Empathy
• Life skills-based education
• Moral development
• People skills
• Personal boundaries
• Positive psychology
• RULER
• Social intelligence
• Social skills
• Soft skills
• Study skills
• Theory of multiple intelligences
• Vocational skills

Sources

 This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Text taken from Pathways of progression: linking technical and vocational education and training with post-secondary education​, UNESCO, UNESCO. UNESCO.

Further reading

• People Skills & Self-Management (free online guide), Alliances for Psychosocial Advancements in Living: Communication Connections (APAL-CC)
• Reaching Your Potential: Personal and Professional Development, 4th Edition
• Andrew J. DuBrin (2016). Human Relations for Career and Personal Success: Concepts, Applications, and Skills. Pearson Education. ISBN 978-0-13-413171-9.
• Life Skills: A Course in Applied Problem Solving., Saskatchewan NewStart Inc., First Ave and River Street East, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada.

References

1. Life Skills Education for Children and Adolescents in Schools (Report). World Health Organization. hdl:10665/63552. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
2. Best Thomas, A study on stress and its correlatives with family environment. Retrieved from ResearchGate.
3. ^ "Global evaluation of life skills education programmes". unicef.org (Evaluation Report). New York: United Nations Children's Fund. 17 November 2016. pp. 8–9. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
4. "Skills & Competencies - CASEL". Archived from the original on 13 May 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
5. "Do Hasya Yoga".
6. "UNICEF – Search Results". unicef.org. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
7. USA Funds Life Skills Archived 2011-03-17 at the Wayback Machine
8. "Partners in Life Skills Education : Conclusions from a United Nations Inter-Agency Meeting" (PDF). World Health Organization. 1999. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2018-07-15.
9. WHO 1993, p. 14: decision-making - problem-solving creative thinking - critical thinking communication - interpersonal relationships self-awareness - empathy coping with - emotions and stressors.
10. "Puget Sound ESD – excellence & equity in education | Pre-K-12 Life Skills Curriculum Guide". psesd.org. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
11. Life Skills Education (LSE)
12. UNESCO (2018). Pathways of progression: linking technical and vocational education and training with post-secondary education. UNESCO. ISBN 978-92-3-100290-8.
13. Prinz, Ron (2009). "Behavioral parent training". Encyclopedia of Human Relationships. doi:10.4135/9781412958479.n53. ISBN 9781412958462.
14. Improving Vocational and Life Skills of Ex-Child Labourers and at Risk Children Aged 15 to 17 Years Archived 2011-09-26 at the Wayback Machine
15. "Home | Family and Youth Services Bureau | Administration for Children and Families". acf.hhs.gov. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
16. Prajapati, Ravindra (2017). "Significance of Life Skills Education" (PDF). Contemporary Issues in Education Research. 10: 4 – via The Clute Institute.

World Health Organization. Division of Mental Health (1993), Life skills education for children and adolescents in schools, hdl:10665/63552, Wikidata Q114785254, retrieved 2022-10-21

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