The importance of life skills

A formal education does open doors, but upon graduation, would your child be able to cope with the daily challenges that life throws at him or her?

Most of life’s predicaments probably will have nothing to do with Shakespeare, trigonometry or world history.

Will your child know how to handle a job interview – and what to do with that first pay cheque?

What will he or she do if his car breaks down or someone gets sick?

Life skills are equally – if not more – important than academic skills.

Here are a few things your child should master before adulthood:

• Communication
An 18-year-old must be able to talk to strangers – from the dean, to the landlord, store clerks, human resource managers, co-workers, bank tellers, health care providers, bus drivers and mechanics.

• Cooking
Teach your children some basic cooking skills – they cannot expect to survive on takeaways and restaurant dinners alone.


• Financial skills
Do your children know how to work with money? Have you taught them about budgeting, taxes, debt, investments and insurance?

• Household chores
Have your taught your children the basics of running a household? Will they be able to do their own laundry and mow the lawn?

• How to survive without technology
Load-shedding taught us how to cope without electricity, but would your child know how to survive without a smartphone, for instance? Can your child set an analogue alarm clock, do basic equations without a calculator or remember a few important telephone numbers?

• The law
All citizens need to know what laws there are that affect their daily lives. Can someone go to jail for not paying a traffic fine? Will you get in trouble for injuring a gun-wielding burglar? Your children need to know the answers to these questions.

• Self-defence
There will come a time when your children will have to protect themselves from harm. Make sure they know a few basic moves to save their own lives.


• Car care
If your child plans on owning his own vehicle, he or she needs to know how to take care of it and, to some degree, what’s going on underneath the bonnet.


• Time management
Can your child work independently, and plan life around schedules and deadlines?

• People skills
Not all people are nice and some relationships require a fair amount of savvy in order to succeed, especially in the workplace. Is your child equipped to deal with different people and handle conflict situations?


• Navigation
At the age of 18, your child will no longer depend on his or her parents or a school bus to be ferried around. Can they find their way around campus, as well as town? Do they know how to use public transport, and read a map?


• Manners
You’ll go a lot further in life if you treat others with respect, and in many cultures this means good manners. Teach your child about the importance of properly greeting someone, as well as eye contact and body language.

• Etiquette
Do your children know how to properly conduct themselves at a restaurant or business meeting, or will they embarrass themselves?

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