Many articles have been written about soft skills and life skills that schools don’t teach.
The skills can loosely be grouped into the categories below:
- Home Management – Personal finance, cooking, and cleaning
- Career as a Business – Job Hunting, Negotiating, Leadership, Networking
- Priorities – Time Management, Setting Boundaries, Planning
- Personal Branding – Self-Awareness, Advocating for Yourself
- Creativity – Problem solving, entrepreneurial approach, decision making.
- Interpersonal Skills – Communication, managing emotions.
- Stress Management – Bouncing back from failure, prioritizing multiple life events.
My Perspective
While I understand why these are on the list, I’m not sure school is the right solution.
Some of these are difficult to understand until you are in the situation to learn.
Life events like moving out on your own.
Searching for jobs.
Being overwhelmed by workload (at school or work).
When you are in the moment of needing the skills, you are more likely to pay attention and learn.
The challenge we face is finding the right training at the exact moment these arise.
Your Turn
Have you faced the task of learning these skills on your own?
What approach did you take to learn them? How could these important skills be taught when we need them?