Instead, students seek a college education to ensure they are more employable after graduation. Therefore, including life skills curriculum for college students makes sense for many reasons. It helps students in college build a pleasant sense of confidence and have a better approach to not only academic activities but professional activities. Thus, build an amazing relationship with themselves and others. According to The Washington Post, though college graduates may not be unemployed, 40% of college graduates are underemployed, meaning they are in jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree. These employment outcomes may result from poor preparation in an area where young adults are often considered lacking: life skills. Life skills enable adults to function properly in society. This is done through proper stress management, study habits, financial knowledge, self-care, social awareness, and the general ability to work well with anyone. In this article, put together by the World Scholarship Forum, we’ll discuss life skills. Enjoy your read! JUMP TO
What Are Life Skills?
According to Wikipedia, life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable humans to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life. Through the knowledge of life skills, college students develop self-confidence and successfully deal with significant life changes and challenges, such as bullying, discrimination, stress, cultural divergence, and a whole lot more. Therefore, the need for colleges to facilitate life skill curriculum courses for first-year students, workshops, and additional training on campus is of great importance. Teaching these adult life skills at the undergraduate level helps students to be well-adapted members of the workforce and society.
What Are The Benefits Of Life Skills To College Students?
In a dynamic environment, having life skills helps one meet the challenges of everyday life. It has matched the exciting changes in global economies over the past five years with the change in technology and these are all affecting education, the workplace, and our home life. To cope with the increasing pace and ever-changing dynamics of modern life, college students need new life skills such as the ability to deal with stress, time management, financial literacy, frustration, and a lot more. These life skills prepare students for the course of life and situations to come.
Benefits to the individual
In everyday life, the development of life skills aids college students to:
Find alternative ways of thinking and problem-solving.Recognize the impact of their actions and teaches them to take responsibility for what they do rather than blame others.Build confidence both in spoken skills and for group collaboration and cooperation.Analyze options, decide, and understand why they make certain choices outside the classroom.Develop a greater sense of self-awareness and appreciation for others.
Benefits for employment
After the struggle for good grades which aims at preparing students for work tussles, it also expects college students to learn and adopt life skills for the workspace arena. According to research, employers look beyond academic success but key employability skills including:
The ability to self-manage, solve problems, and learn the business environment. It helps build the spirit of teamwork.Time and people management.Agility and adaptability to different roles and flexible working environments.The potential to lead by influence.
Benefits for Society
The more we gain life skills individually, the more these affect and benefit the world in which we live:
It helps in recognizing cultural awareness which makes international cooperation easier.Improves the sense of respect for diversity which allows creativity and imagination to flourish developing a more tolerant society. Developing negotiation skills, the ability to network, and empathize can help to build resolutions rather than resentments.
What Qualifies For A Life Skill Curriculum In Colleges?
College students solely on their own and have personal responsibility and a lot less external structure. That is to say, you are in charge of your activities and schedules. Therefore, there’s a greater need to multi-task and balance the myriad of new social opportunities and challenges. The following qualifies for a life skills curriculum in colleges:
Example Of Life Skills for College Students
Time Management and Responsibility
Effective management of time and responsibilities are crucial life skills that college graduates need to strongly navigate not only their careers but also their personal lives. But no matter what obligations you have outside school activities, you are expected to balance your intended activities and schedules. TIPS TO HELP STUDENTS LEARN TIME MANAGEMENT Though we tell students to manage their time, we rarely explain what that means or give them the proper tools to improve this skill.
Teach students to make a TO-DO list and prioritize the listed items by the most important to least. Writing things down with a pen and paper may prove more productive than a phone app or computer program, as it provides a concrete way to track your tasks and priorities.Have students advance in a time management tool. The time management tools allow individuals to make lists, write appointments and due dates, and fill out a “passion roadmap” to help them achieve their goals.Help students understand how much time things take. This enables them to time their activities properly. Often, an unrealistic ideal of time leads to poor prioritization, lateness, and a plain lack of responsibility.
Financial Knowledge, Money Management, and Budgeting
It is no longer news that many college students struggle with money because of a lack of financial education prior to high school graduation and financial stress of college. Money.com explains that because of unforeseen expenses, the cost of tuition, books, and other college fees, many students run out of cash prior to the end of the semester. Most times, it affects their success and can also set them up for debt and other issues upon graduation. Therefore, it is of great importance that college students learn how to effectively manage finance. TIPS TO HELP STUDENTS GAIN FINANCIAL LITERACY
Share budgets and help students really understand costs. Assist students to create a credit history, but explain how to pay off balances so as not to acquire debt.Also, teach students how to save for unforeseen expenses like a car breakdown, accidents, and other emergencies. When students establish savings or income streams for these expenses, he ends up not financially wounded by the situations when they suddenly occur.Engage students with a financial planner or professional to help them understand adult financial needs, including insurance and investments, that they may want to examine prior to graduating.Teach students the importance of living within their means despite the increase in demands and dynamic economic situation of the country.
Stress Management and Self-Care
With the steadily increasing activities in the school, there has been a growing concern for the mental health of college students. From dealing with much academic workload to having to work while in school, students have a lot to deal with beyond the classroom. Mastering to embrace self-care and manage stress provides a foundation for coping skills that graduates can use in the workforce. TIPS FOR ENCOURAGING BETTER MENTAL HEALTH IN COLLEGE
Teach students to create relationships and find support systems.Students need to prioritize getting the right amount of sleep, watching their intake of alcohol, eating healthy foods, and getting the right amount of physical exercise.Students need to be notified of the services available to them both on and off-campus. For example, some graduates don’t know that their insurance may cover therapy, incentives to join a gym, and more.
Motivation and Perseverance
Many students learn motivation and perseverance techniques formally in institutions through support staff, coursework, orientations, and classes designed for first-year students. However, it can be difficult for some students to remain motivated when the going gets tough. In recent years, higher education professionals have centered on developing student determination to increase retention rates. According to Inside Higher Ed, students are more likely to persevere and stay motivated if they possess self-efficacy, a sense of belonging, and perceive value in the school’s curriculum. TO KEEP STUDENTS MOTIVATED, YOU HAVE TO:
Ensure that curricula are tailored to life after graduation.Provide opportunities for students to engage with others on campus to foster a sense of belonging to their community.Ensure that students understand the support services that are available to them (often highlighted orientation or in first-year student seminars).Match students with mentors to answer questions and help build their self-worth.
Assertiveness Skills
Learning how to speak up for yourself assertively that is not aggressive is one of the great life skills a college student needs to succeed not only in college but out of college. Assertiveness skills apply in roommate communication, study groups, teams, and conflict resolution. They also involve learning and practising healthy boundaries and knowing when to pull the plug.
Self Care Attitude
As a college student, you need to be conscious of your health and wellbeing. Develop bedtimes based on physical needs and health. Also, make out time for other self-care routines like cleaning your closet and going routine check-up. Adequate sleep and a healthy diet can improve mood, athletic and classroom performance, and coping strategies for stress. Exercise, relaxation, and good hygiene are also important aspects of self-care.
Ability To Develop An Organised Study Strategy
Finding a study hour that works best for you will save you a lot of stress and academic issues. Therefore, you have to develop a study strategy and stick to it. What works for others won’t work for you. Therefore, be responsible for the choice of study strategy you choose. The earlier you study, the happier your stay in college becomes.
Cultural Competency and Working With Others
Cultural competency is an essential life skill for students to gain in order to work well with others, both personally and professionally. Like any other skill, cultural competency demands learning and practice. For instance, Tiffin University (TU) in Ohio is trying to ensure that its students can work with diverse groups of people following graduation. Recognizing this early on can be valuable to how an individual works towards the continuous development of cultural competency.
Why Should Colleges Incorporate Life Skills Curriculum In The Classroom?
In our world today where things are transforming at a fast rate, there is a need for a student not to be just an excellent reader and writer but a total embodiment of a life soldier. In other to succeed in life, you need other skills like good interpersonal skills, good teamwork skills, leadership and co-operational skill, critical thinking a lot more are all necessary ingredients for life.
To help develop the students higher-level thinking skills
Every school curriculum should incorporate strategies that require higher-level thinking skills such as inference, prediction, analysis, and critical thinking. With the use of critical thinking strategies, students develop skills such as reasoning, questioning and investigating, observing and describing, comparing and connecting, finding complexity, and exploring viewpoints. Problem-solving is an important element of all content areas.
It helps build eloquent communication
Confidence in speaking, discussion, debate, writing, and problem-solving provide a good start to providing a foundation for obtaining the skills. Students become independent in their own learning, where teachers assume the role of moderators, guiding them through their learning process.
Good Time Management Creates Balance
Many people live under persistent duress because they feel they can’t accomplish all the tasks for which they’re responsible. Time management doesn’t just involve giving in your best to ever minute, it helps allocate time for enjoyment which reduces stress level. Through the use of technology, students can organize priorities and locate resources for relaxation. Life skills curriculum can point out the need for good time management and help students find means for making it a habit. Overall, it develops the student’s mindset, manners, and approach to life situations.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, asides the academic curriculum that centres on academic information, students are to be taught beneficial life skills. Therefore, it is of a great imperative that life skills be fused into the college curriculum, thus, making it a topic. In this way, students will be better prepared for life both individually and professionally. Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable humans to cope with the demands and challenges of life. The following qualifies for a life skills curriculum in colleges that will help you develop your own internal structure and be successful in college: Financial management, time management, motivation and perseverance, assertiveness skills, stress management, self-care skills, and a lot more. Through the knowledge of life skills, college students develop self-confidence and successfully deal with significant life changes and challenges, such as bullying, discrimination, stress, cultural divergence, and a whole lot more.
