Search results

This report analyses the development of the Life Skills Initiative for young people in Uganda. This initiative seeks to strengthen health education in schools by developing pupils’ Life Skills, such as assertiveness, decision making and effective communication, to enable them to translate their health knowledge into practice. In the context of HIV/AIDS, Life Skills are seen as one of the young people’s principal protections against infection. Life Skills education requires a participatory, active learning approach, which presents a challenge to Ugandan schools with their huge classes and didactic teaching styles. The report explores how this challenge is being met, through the school system, and through other channels, including non‐government organisations, the mass media and the health services.

This research was motivated and initiated by a request from industry to present a life skills learning programme to supplement young workers’ training. Subsequently, the dilemma faced by facilitators and trainers to assess the learners’ attainment of the learning outcomes of a life skills learning programme provided the impetus to develop an alternative assessment method – the collage and the stimulus instruments. A model developed by the researchers guided the development of the alternative assessment method and the stimulus instruments. Taking into account the demands, requirements and characteristics of life skills, a collage consisting of ten pictures and ten verbal concepts was developed to assess the learners’ attainment of the learning outcomes of a particular life skills learning programme. The life skills learning programme was presented to 18 artisans employed in industry. The selected material in the collage depicts more than one life skill and reflects the learning outcomes of the programme. The article is published in two parts. Part 1 is outlined above. The second part of the article will report on the outcomes of the application of the assessment instrument with the subject group of young workers.

The study aims to review the existing theories and literature related to life skills education for adolescents to construct a model portraying the inter-relatedness between these variables. This study discerns the inferences from the studies conducted earlier to propose various aspects to be considered for future research and interventions targeting the effectiveness of life skills education for adolescents.

Prolific examination of numerous theoretical and empirical studies addressing these variables was carried out to formulate assertions and postulations. Deducing from the studies in varied streams of education, public health, psychology, economics and international development, this paper is an endeavor toward clarifying some pertinent issues related to life skills education.

Although there is abundant evidence to encourage and assist the development of life skills as a tool to achieve other outcomes of interest, it is also important to see life skills as providing both instrumental and ultimate value to adolescents. Quality life skills education needs to be intertwined with the curriculum through the primary and secondary education, in the same way as literacy and numeracy skills.

The present study has important implications for educators and policymakers for designing effective life skills education programs. Additionally, this paper provides a three-step model based on Lewin’s three step prototype for change, to impart life skills trainings to adolescents through drafting pertinent systems. This will help in imparting quality life skills education to adolescents and raising them to be psychologically mature adults.

Meeting the 21st century skills is critically significant to ensure success in today's world, collegiate context and neoteric careers. This qualitative study turns attention to teachers' mindsets, dispositions and perceptions concerning 21st century life competencies required to meet the current, emerging and future needs of learners.

One-to-one structured interviews were conducted with English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers (N = 8), where open-ended questions were asked in order to determine the participants' perception of, support to, and integration of the life competencies into an EFL classroom setting. In addition, teachers' performance and implementation of life competencies (males and females) was observed in the classroom over a long time.

The results showed that teachers' practices contradict their conceptions of the life competencies. Critical thinking was seen as a priority from teachers' perspectives. Teachers perceived learning to learn and critical thinking as the most important competencies for students to learn. Findings of the study indicated that teachers hold positive attitudes toward integrating life competencies into EFL context; however, they lack a clear vision about how to incorporate them.

This study recommends equipping teachers with professional training and customized orientations offering new insights into how life-competency-oriented instruction might be designed.

Career readiness should be a prominent aim of education where students are equipped with life skills or competencies. EFL practitioners need to understand, support and implement life-competency-instruction.

The geographic, economic and social mobility of people today requires that many must be able to adapt or adopt various life styles in accordance with their surroundings and integrity. Today, many people need to be multi‐cultural so they can succeed and survive in ethnic, commercial and other milieux in rapid sequence, often each day. A Canadian Life Skills programme has been designed to help such people adopt a problem solving approach to managing their lives.

El Salvador’s youth have faced a climate of violence for decades. Schools have been identified as the most cost-effective ways to help students develop the life skills they need to prevent violence. This study examined the potential role of a physical education (PE) program taught by some of the first Salvadoran teachers to be trained to foster life skills through PE within schools.

Fourteen schools that had hired a PE teacher trained in life skills-based PE volunteered to participate in the study. Semi-structured interviews with the school director, PE teacher, and a focus group of students at each school were conducted.

Interviews were content analyzed and potential themes were initially placed into one of three life skills categories using a deductive analysis based upon the World Health Organization’s (WHO) (2002) three categories of life skills: (i) Coping and Self-Management; (ii) Communication and Interpersonal; (iii) Decision Making/Problem Solving. Then, using an inductive analysis, various themes within each life skills category were identified. The findings revealed that participants in the study identified the role that PE provides in developing life skills in each of the three categories and many identified the importance of these life skills to prevent violence both in and out of schools.

Findings from this study highlight the important role that schools play in the development of life skills and the prevention of youth violence. PE in particular offers a promising approach due to its applied nature and opportunity for students to learn through doing and the application of life skills in a safe manner. The findings also support the importance of trained PE teachers to deliver such programs.

Central America has and continues to be a region with high levels of youth violence. Given that PE is a mandatory school subject in Salvadoran schools (and in other Central American countries), shifting the focus toward a life skills-based approach to PE offers educators an opportunity to address the country’s number one public health concern which is youth violence. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind in El Salvador to explore the role of PE as it relates to youth violence and can help in future curricular revisions in schools and the development of degree programs at local universities.

Tackling high reoffending rates in England and Wales is of significant political interest, with education and training being viewed as an important mechanism to achieve change. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a small empirical study examining a life skills programme delivered in a Category C prison in the West Midlands.

The study used a multi-method approach incorporating observations of two modules, four focus groups with prisoners enrolled on the programme, questionnaires with programme completers, and semi-structured interviews with staff.

The findings indicate that life skills are an important component in rehabilitation. More specifically, developing the necessary tools to assist prisoners in everyday life, such as recognition, interpretation, reflection, response, and planning is fundamental to rehabilitation.

A limitation of this study was that only prisoners currently at this Category C prison were included. This could be complemented by the inclusion of more participants who had completed the programme; however, access and data protection considerations limited the study to one location.

The key message of this study is that without addressing basic life skills, education and vocational rehabilitation is severely limited.

To reduce reoffending rates, it is important to conceive rehabilitation in broader terms, not simply in relation to education and vocational training.

This paper offers insight into an unreported area of good practice in prison rehabilitation provision.

The purposes of this qualitative study were to determine the contribution of 4-H experiences to leadership life skill development of college-level 4-H alumni and to determine the effect of those skills on collegiate alumni’s desire to continue involvement in 4-H. The research methods included semi-structured interviews. Major findings of the study noted that the interviewees’ 4-H experiences positively contributed to leadership life skill development, closely following the pattern of the four essential elements which serve as the foundation of 4-H programming. Also identified was a strong desire of college-level 4-H alumni to continue their participation with 4-H. Recommendations include specifically targeting this generation of alumni for greater utilization because of their strong desire to stay connected.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of life skills training (LST) to promote psychosocial well-being of Tibetan refugee adolescents in India.

A total of 300 students having low coping strategies, self-confidence and emotional intelligence (EI) participated in the study. They were randomly assigned to experimental (n=150) and control group (n=150). LST consisting of ten core skills was implemented on the experimental group.

ANCOVA and regression analysis revealed that LST was effective in enhancing coping strategies, self-confidence and EI among Tibetan refugee adolescents.

This study was quantitative in its statistical design and approach. Further research combined with qualitative tools must be explored to gain deeper insight into the personal journey of these young refugees and to corroborate the impact of LST on their psychosocial well-being.

Results from this study will help to integrate LST into regular school curriculum, thereby ensuring its implementation on a daily basis.

Previous studies on Tibetan refugees have focused on physical and mental hardships experienced by them. There is limited research on strategies adopted to address the needs of these young refugees after migration. This is the first school-based intervention study that tailored the WHO recommended ten core skills to suit the social and cultural contexts of these young refugees and equip them with psychosocial skills to increase their capacity to cope with the complexity of migration.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight important aspects of adopting a lifelong learning mindset as a way to improve entrepreneurial employability and self-employment capabilities among older workers, and to examine their practicality in enterprise services.

This paper takes a two-method research approach that synthesizes an original conceptual framework based on current gerontological and work psychology literature with qualitative organizational case study in the Israeli labor market.

The process of lifelong learning and accumulation of employability underpins a fulfilling career in self-employment later in life, through continuous self-acquisition of necessary knowledge and complementary skills. Adopting a lifelong learning mindset may contribute to older workers developing lifelong employability by self-realizing their meaningful life wisdom alongside becoming lifelong learners, and consequently, by becoming protean career owners capable of acquiring entrepreneurial competencies and skills. Program analysis of social and business enterprises established in Israel to meet the demand for the acquisition of later life skills demonstrates the various ways in which they play a role in supporting this process.

The need for future research and practice on the conceptual framework presented in this paper is analyzed and discussed in the Israeli context.

This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion on third-age entrepreneurship, by conceptually linking the core concept of lifelong learning to entrepreneurial employability, and demonstrating its application in the Israeli work culture.