Effective Life Skills Curriculum For College Students | SAMPLES

Over the years, it centers the college curriculum on academics with little recourse to life skills. However, there has been an upward move in recent years in the mindset of college students. Students no longer go to universities just for the experience or the chance to graduate with good grades.

Instead, students seek a college education to ensure they are more employable after graduation. Therefore, a life skills curriculum for college students makes sense for many reasons. It helps students in college build a pleasant feeling of confidence and have a better approach to academic and professional activities. Thus, build fantastic relationships 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 often lack 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 working well with anyone.

We’ll discuss life skills in this article, put together by the World Scholarship Forum. 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 much 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 technology change, which all affect education, the workplace, and our home life.

College students need new life skills such as dealing with stress, time management, financial literacy, frustration, and much more to cope with the increasing pace and ever-changing dynamics of modern life. These life skills prepare students for life and the 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 their actions’ impact and teach them to take responsibility for what they do rather than blame others.
• Build confidence both in spoken skills and in group collaboration and cooperation.
• Analyze options, decide, and understand why they make confident 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 to prepare 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 critical 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.
• It 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 are solely on their own and have personal responsibility and 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 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 your obligations outside school activities, you are expected to balance your intended actions 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 from the most important to the 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 time ideal leads to poor prioritization, lateness, and a 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 before high school graduation and the financial stress of college.

Money.com explains that because of unforeseen expenses, tuition, books, and other college fees, many students run out of cash before 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 manage finance effectively.

TIPS TO HELP STUDENTS GAIN FINANCIAL LITERACY

• Share budgets and help students understand costs. 
• Assist students in creating a credit history, but explain how to pay off balances, not to acquire debt.
• Also, teach students how to save for unforeseen expenses like car breakdowns, 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 before graduating.
• Teach students the importance of living within their means despite the country’s increased demands and dynamic economic situation.

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. Students have a lot to deal with beyond the classroom, from dealing with much academic workload to having to work while in school. 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 formally learn motivation and perseverance techniques 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 it gets tough.

Higher education professionals have recently 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 in 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 practicing healthy boundaries and knowing when to pull the plug.

Self Care Attitude

As a college student, you must be conscious of your health and well-being. Develop bedtimes based on physical needs and health. Also, make out time for other self-care routines like cleaning your closet and going to routine check-ups. 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 to work well with others 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. To succeed in life, you need other skills like good interpersonal, teamwork, leadership, and co-operational skills; critical thinking and 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. Using 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 essential element of all content areas.

It helps build eloquent communication.

Confidence in speaking, discussion, debate, writing, and problem-solving provides an excellent start to providing a foundation for obtaining the skills. Students become independent in their learning, where teachers assume the role of moderators, guiding them through their learning process.

Good Time Management Creates Balance

Many people live under constant duress because they feel they can’t accomplish all the tasks they’re responsible for. Time management doesn’t just involve giving in your best every minute. It helps allocate time for enjoyment which reduces stress levels.

Using technology, students can organize priorities and locate resources for relaxation. A life skills curriculum can highlight the need for good time management and help students find ways to make it a habit.

It develops the student’s mindset, manners, and approach to life situations.

Conclusion

Aside from the academic curriculum that centers on academic information, students are taught beneficial life skills. Therefore, life skills must be fused into the college curriculum, thus, making it a topic. In this way, students will be better prepared for life individually and professionally.

FAQs On Effective Life Skills Curriculum For College Students

References

• https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/life-skills-curriculum/
• https://www.educationlifeskills.com/why-high-schools-should-be-teaching-life-skills/
• https://www.macmillanenglish.com/blog-resources/article/why-are-life-skills-important
• https://www.britishcouncil.gr/en/life-skills/about/what-are-life-skills

We Also Recommend

• 20 Best Tablets for College Students on a Budget
• 10 Resources & Best Websites for Physics
• 13 Best Colleges that Change the lives of Students after Graduation
• 20 Good Weekend Jobs For Students After School Activities