Download Basic Life Skills Curriculum: Empowering Youth with Essential Life Skills and more Lecture notes Life Sciences in PDF only on Docsity! 1 KNOWLEDGE BRIEF: BASIC LIFE SKILLS CURRICULUM What is Basic Life Skills? Life skills are defined as “a group of psychosocial competencies and interpersonal skills that help people make informed decisions, solve problems, think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, build healthy relationships, empathize with others, and cope with and manage their lives in a healthy and productive manner. Life skills may be directed toward personal actions or actions toward others, as well as toward actions to change the surrounding environment to make it conducive to health.” according to World Health Organization (WHO). Bearing the WHO definition in mind, the Basic Life Skills curriculum offers youth the emotional, social and intellectual tools needed to achieve success in life – on a personal level, an interpersonal level, and within their community and work places. Who Developed Basic Life Skills Curriculum? It was developed by UNICEF in close collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sport of Azerbaijan to provide youth with new knowledge and the opportunity to apply novel skills in a safe environ- ment for the successful transitioning to the adulthood. “The training course has taught me the importance of finding a job I will really enjoy doing and to enjoy every moment of my life.” - Gulchin Mahmudlu (one of more than 200 students aged 12-24 years old who par- ticipated in the piloting course) 2 Why Is Basic Life Skills Important? The Basic Life skills provides readily available tools to deal with chal- lenges/demands of daily lives the youth face, from managing their emotions to make an informed decision. It also helps develop chil- dren’s personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities, and real- ize their true potential through learning to know oneself and others, and make effective decisions to live harmonically together in the soci- ety. The Education for All (2000) included life skills among the essen- tial learning tool for survival, capacity development and quality life. It also documented that all young people and adults have the “human right to benefit from an education that includes learning to know, to do, to live together.” recognizing the importance of living together as much as acquiring knowledge from an academic environment. What Is Basic Life Skills For? • Objective: Young generations develop attitudes and beliefs in a positive manner so that they contribute to Azerbaijani society and achieve success as they transition to adulthood, and the work world. • Target audience: The life skills lesson package is intended to apply to young generation aged 10 to 24 years old who come to Youth Houses aiming to creating a healthy condition to support and ad vancement of youth initiatives. • Expected outcome: Through life skills education, young genera- tions are equipped with foundational skills necessary for transi- tioning to productive adulthood; manage stress; learn to deal with difficult emotions; practice positivism; improve self-esteem; feel empathy; learn to listen to others carefully; learn to set personal boundary; handle dispute well; find balance between priorities and demands; communicate confidently; set goals; make deci- sions; solve problems; think critically and creatively; use executive functional skills; and learn to bounce back from adversity. “I see these young people ex- cited to have the opportunity to learn about topics that are traditionally not covered in for- mal academic settings.” Michelle May (UNICEF International consult- ant) “A joint initiative between the Government and the United Nations that aims to revitalize the Youth Houses’ platform through the delivery of an inte- grated package of services in the heart of the community.” Aida Ailarova (Youth and Adolescent Develop- ment Specialist at UNICEF Azer- baijan)
