Life skills help an individual function well in different ways. They aid in the smooth adjustment in social situations, and regulation of self and emotions. Life skills are techniques or skills picked up that help in handling interpersonal relationships in a healthy manner. This may be through practicing on maintaining appropriate body language, and fearlessly facing crowds and speaking, which will assist us while dealing with life’s issues and incidents. As a result, we can develop the art of communicating effectively and with ease.
Life skills differ from soft skills and hard skills (academic and technical knowledge) and have often been neglected and taken over by the other two. Soft skills are personality traits and abilities that are closely looked into for jobs’ sake. But life skills are an extension of the same and takes the individual far beyond just a successful and satisfying career.
To ensure that such life skills are instilled and developed from a young age, Jain International Residential School (JIRS) regularly conducts the Life Skills Development Program (LSDP) for their CBSE 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students. The team activity of Product Launch was conducted for the four grades.
How does the Life Skills Development Program help children in today’s day and age?
The students received feedback on their improvement in the areas of public speaking, communication, developing appropriate body language, and keeping the right attitude. The children had a fun time working as teams by brainstorming extraordinary ideas experimenting with the usability of a product. Such thinking is generated when they are allowed to explore possibilities with no limitations. Life Skills Development program works well by improving the extent and limits of the students’ imagination, research, and innovation.
The goal of Product Launch is to bring out the creativity, innovative ideas and teamwork qualities from the students. This will help them to prepare for future studies and project presentations at the college and university levels. They also become more confident before crowds. Besides, it was also to help them realize the potentials and areas that they may need to work on.
Top international boarding schools conduct such programs on a regular basis, with different ideas and presentations showcased. Being away from home actually encourages them to be independent with ideas and to keep trying and inventing original projects and methods on their own.
Products displaying the students’ resourcefulness
The 12th grade students came up with products like the Invisibility Cloak, the Dutch Tub, One-of-a-Kind Torch, and a Diamond-studded car. The 11th grade students exhibited products like Dream Catchers, Robo Grip – for artificial limbs, S Capsules – made with algae rich in nutrients, and the Hydrophilic Cycle – a fitness bicycle that runs on water. They also displayed Seed – Smart Bottle, Dual Cooler – A refrigerator-cum-an air conditioner, a Solar-Powered Camping Tent, and a Reusable Candle.
The 10th grade students set out with highly imaginative products like Hi-tech Shoes, Smart Spectacles, Smart Suitcase – Forward X, and Green Marketing. The 9th grade students came up with out-of-the-box products like the Touch Screen Piano, All Purpose Solar Charger, and Live 120 Watch. Here are some of the features and details of some of these unique products.
The Touch Screen Piano - portable, attractive, and very useful for music lovers who love to take it anywhere. It is small, has more than ten thousand different varieties of rhythms and voices. It also supports numerous Indian rhythms and ragas. The instrument is inexpensive as compared to other global brands. The team also announced that the Touch Screen Piano will be launched on the musician A.R. Rahman’s birthday.
The Soul - Solar Charger - the one solution to all power problems, was another exciting product. It helps charge phones and gadgets, like iPods, mobiles, digital cameras, etc. The goal of the product, as told by the group was to provide an affordable renewable energy solution to millions of people. The multi-utility charger runs on solar energy and works at any place where electricity and high power consumption is required. The eco-friendly product is also available for the rural population.
Along with the “basic” features of an alarm, calling, video calling, stopwatch, timer, calendar, and Bluetooth, Live 120 – the smartwatch is durable, water-resistant, and shock-resistant. It is specialized in solar-radio control. It is AI-enabled as well, which makes it faster and is cheaper as well. The AI can identify dangers through the wearer’s heartbeat and emotional changes. Location is also tracked through its inbuilt GPS. The smartwatch is available in many colors and is priced at $100 worldwide and Rs.6, 500 in India.
Core Life Skills Presentation
The 9th and 10th grade students also had sessions on core life skills where they spoke on topics such as Time Management, Emotional Intelligence, Body Language, How to live without certain Technology, Law and Order, The Importance of Creative Thinking, Learning from Failures, and The Importance of Cooking. They also spoke on self-awareness and mindfulness, interpersonal relationships, emotional self-regulation, self-defense.
The key takeaway from Life Skills Development Programs is that they equip the children to learn to handle life with its successes and failures. Top international schools are often seen administering such programs and seminars to help keep their students grounded in a competitive world. They also gain the confidence to excel and compete with students from the rest of the world. Education is considered wholesome only by cultivating life skills.