Somewhat belatedly, educationists especially in urban schools across the subcontinent, have become acutely aware that teaching life/ soft skills for professional and personal success is as important as developing academic capability. Summiya Yasmeen reports 

It’s the new buzzword in Indian education. Everybody — school and college managements, principals, teachers, educationists, parents, students, and even corporates — is suddenly talking about the critical importance of life skills education. Somewhat belatedly educationists especially in urban schools across the subcontinent, have become acutely aware of the rising popularity of life skills education- that teaching life/ soft skills to students is as important as developing academic capability for professional and personal success. 

Celebration by the print and electronic media of corporate heroes such as Reliance Industries founder the late Dhirubhai Ambani, Virgin Atlantic boss Richard Branson, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, who were academic drifters but well equipped in life skills, and the liberalisation of the Indian economy has thrown open unprecedented opportunities and high-paying jobs which require more than mere academic capability. Hence the rising demand for life skills education.

Defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “abilities for positive and adaptive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and changes of everyday life”, life skills such as problem solving, decision making, good manners, communication and interpersonal skills, are highly valued in the job marketplace of India’s rapidly globalising economy. Consequently surging demand for these taken-for-granted but conspicuously lacking soft skills has led to a sudden spurt in the promotion of a spate of life skills education firms which offer customised programmes to schools, colleges and corporates promising the vital X factor to round off the education of students and indeed, of corporate executives.

“In the past five years in particular following the opening up of the Indian economy and technological sea-change, there’s been growing awareness among school and college managements that examination success does not necessarily translate into workplace success. It requires something more than mugging up textbooks to be a successful doctor, engineer, architect, teacher, manager or entrepreneur. And that vital missing link in the education process is the acquisition of life skills — capabilities which prepare children to cope with life’s diverse challenges. These skills which need to be nurtured help children tackle failure, relationships, sexuality, exam fears, rejection, peer pressure, and stress — problems which can severely affect their lives,” says Syed Sultan Ahmed, founder managing director of The Activity, a Bangalore-based division of S.S. Edutainment Pvt Ltd, with offices in six cities and among the first firms to formally deliver life skills education to school students.

According to Ahmed, a chemical engineer of Bangalore University, who started The Activity in 1997, the World Health Organisation (WHO) accepted the need for life skills education in 1998. WHO recommended a module comprising ten life skills — stress management, problem solving, communication skills, emotions management, creative thinking, self awareness, interpersonal skills, empathy, decision making, and critical thinking — to every school worldwide to incorporate into the mainstream academic curriculum.

The Activity offers these who mandated life skills, modified and adapted to the Indian context by its 30-strong team of educators and trainers, to 16,000 plus class V-X students in 21 schools in Hyderabad and Bangalore. Spread over the full academic year — 34 one-hour teaching periods — its life skills programme, priced between Rs.600-1,000 per student per year, is an integral part of the curriculum of contracted schools. A team of specially trained The Activity facilitators use a wide range of interactive teaching tools such as games, role plays, story-telling, theatre, art, group discussion and practical activities to deliver the ten WHO recommended life skills.

By introducing skills development training in secondary education progressive schools are doing corporates and industry a big service, sparing them weeks of on-the-job training. There’s no shortage of business case studies which establish the vital connection between workplace productivity and the essential soft skills of problem solving, social confidence and communication. Therefore latterly corporates are pulling out all the stops to develop these skills — hitherto ignored by schools and colleges — of their employees. In particular the sunrise information technology, business process outsourcing and biotechnology industries, which compete globally and appreciate quick decisions and customer satisfaction, prize soft skills on a par with technical capability.

Comments Puneet Jetli, general manager ‘people function’ (human resource development) of MindTree Consulting, (sales revenue: Rs.245 crore) a high profile Bangalore-based IT consulting firm with offices in 14 cities and 120 clients around the world: “As the Indian economy matures and finds its rightful place on the world map, the importance of developing managerial life skills is becoming critical to business success. With Indian companies competing globally, its managers and executives have to top up technical know-how with excellent workplace and social skills — abilities which often make or break business deals. At MindTree since our focus is on providing innovative business enabling solutions and technologies to customers, we ensure our people are equipped with the requisite soft skills to engage customers and deliver satisfaction. Therefore we regularly conduct short-term workshops to train our engineers and executives in time management, planning, coordination, client management, documentation, facilitation, presentation, inno-vation, mentoring, assertiveness, teamwork, polite disagreement, etc. However ideally life skills training should start in school during the formative years. While it’s encouraging that some progressive schools have begun to introduce life skills training, all of them need to become aware of the vital linkage between job produc-tivity and life skills education.”

In Indian industry, business awareness of the importance of life skills education has been learnt the hard way. In corporate locker rooms and canteens there’s no shortage of anecdotes detailing how poor communication skills, boorishness and plain bad manners of managers have blown deals worth millions, and in some instances, lumbered high-profile companies with expensive lawsuits.

Unsurprisingly industry awareness of the importance of life skills, largely a post-liberalisation phenomenon, has provided impetus to the life skills education business. Until very recently soft skills training tended to be transmitted by a small number of enterprising educators offering personality development and public speaking programmes. The content of these learning programmes was largely home grown and the duration of training rarely extended beyond a day. However nowadays thanks to unprecedented demand from schools and other education institutions, life skills training has undergone a metamorphosis with specialist firms employing research teams to design innovative curriculums delivered by highly trained facilitators with impressive qualifications. The profile of promoters is also a far cry from their predecessors. These new gen edupreneurs are skilled professionals, many of whom have thrown over high-paying corporate jobs to enter the life skills education business.

A case in point is Delhi-based iDiscoveri Pvt. Ltd (annual revenue: Rs.5 crore) promoted by Ashish Rajpal, an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur and Harvard University and former global marketing director of Danone, a leading Fortune 500 company, together with four other XLRI alumni. Registered in 1996, iDiscoveri offers a range of well-developed life skills, life-goal planning and outdoor education programmes to students, educators, teachers, school principals, parents and corporate executives. The most popular among its programmes, which has earned it an excellent reputation within the education fraternity, is the iQuest development programme for school students aged seven-17. A classroom-based interactive life skills programme (spread over the academic year comprising one teaching period per week) currently operational in ten schools across six cities in India, iQuest is advertised as a “comprehensive life skills curriculum that enables schools to focus on their own teaching strengths while ensuring that children leave school better equipped for life”. Among the skills promised by the iDiscoveri team are self-awareness and self-management, interpersonal, refusal and coping skills.

“The ever expanding demands of examination boards make it difficult for schools to complete their prescribed syllabuses. But the fact remains that much of what is taught in schools today is not applicable. Children need to be taught more real-life skill sets. Research and our experience in schools point in the same direction. An ability to sustain productive relationships at home and in the workplace is what young women and men need most. For that, one needs a sound relationship with oneself. This cannot be expected to happen automatically — it needs a particular type of education. That is what iQuest provides to children in partnership with parents and schools,” says Rajpal of iDiscoveri, which employs 50 people across three cities in India.

Box 1

UNICEF life skills list

The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), the Paris-based transnational organisation committed to children’s rights, survival, development and protection, has decreed life skills an integral component of quality education. At Unicef’s suggestion all 164 nations which signed the United Nations Millennium Development Goal charter of Education for All by 2015 have included ‘life skills’ as a basic learning need for all children and youth.

On its website (www.unicef.org/lifeskills) and in its printed promotional material, Unicef provides a universal definition of life skills, catalogues studies that have evaluated skills-based programmes, and provides practical tools and materials for schools to introduce life skills education into their curriculum. Excerpts:

Definition. Life skills refers to a large group of psycho-social and interpersonal skills which can help people make informed decisions, communicate effectively, and develop coping and self-management skills that may help them lead healthy and productive lives. 

How life skills-based education (LSBE) contributes to the goal of quality education. LSBE strengthens educational processes by insisting on participatory and gender-sensitive teaching and learning methods. Participatory methods allow all participants (including the facilitator) equal opportunity to listen to, and learn from, each other and can appeal to different learning styles.

There is no definitive list of life skills, but the list below includes the psycho-social and interpersonal skills generally considered important. 

Interpersonal communication skills. Verbal/ nonverbal communication; Active listening; Expressing feelings; giving feedback (without blaming) and receiving feedback

Negotiation/ refusal skills. Negotiation and conflict management; Assertiveness skills; Refusal skills 

Empathy. Ability to listen and understand another’s needs and circumstances and express that understanding 

Cooperation and teamwork. Expressing respect for others’ contributions and different styles; Assessing one’s own abilities and contributing to the group 

Advocacy skills. Influencing skills & persuasion; Networking and motivation skills

Decision making/ problem solving skills. Information gathering; Evaluating future consequences of present actions for self and others; Determining alternative solutions to problems; Analysis skills regarding the influence of values and attitudes of self and others on motivation 

Critical thinking skills. Analysing peer and media influences; Analysing attitudes, values, social norms and beliefs and factors affecting these; Identifying relevant information and information sources

Skills for increasing internal locus of control. Self esteem/ confidence building skills; Self awareness skills including awareness of rights, influences, values, attitudes, strengths and weaknesses; Goal setting; Self evaluation/ Self assessment/ Self-monitoring skills 

Skills for managing feelings. Anger management; Dealing with grief and anxiety; Coping skills for dealing with loss, abuse, trauma 

Skills for managing stress. Time management; Positive thinking; Relaxation techniques

Source: www.unicef.org/lifeskills

While pioneer life skills education firms such as The Activity and iDiscoveri have focused upon schools and corporates in the metros, new entrants into the business are active in the untapped smaller cities and towns of India, where the demand for self-improvement education is booming. Promoted in 2000, the Bangalore-based SmartKids Pvt. Ltd, has enrolled 22,000 students in 30 schools across B-class cities (Hubli, Dharwad, Karwar, Mangalore etc) in north Karnataka as also in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad in its life skills and leadership development programmes.

The SmartKids life skills curriculum, apart from the usual inter-personal relationships, critical thinking, decision-making module, also includes training and developing social skills such as table manners, telephone etiquette, home and school behaviour, public speaking, self-confidence, and ways and means to manage peer pressure and improve self-esteem. SmartKids charges schools Rs.30-100 per month per student for delivering its life skills training classes weekly.

“The demand for life skills and self development programmes in small towns is huge. Schools here are very receptive as we customise our programmes to suit each school’s requirement. Our six-point training module covers personality development, creativity, attitudes, values and etiquette for confidence building to cope with societal changes, cross-cultural demands and responsible citizenship. Over the next year we will expand our operations to other cities in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as we receive a steady stream of enquiries from schools in these regions,” says Mathew Abraham, a former marketing manager of NIIT and currently director of SmartKids, which employs 95 people including 60 life skills trainers in 12 cities.

With upwardly mobile middle class parents cottoning on to the importance of life skills, the number of providers is multiplying. For instance the Bangalore-based Buoyancee in its 13 years of existence has conducted two-six day life-skills training workshops for over 250,000 school and college students. “Since we started in 1992 we have trained over 200,000 school, 50,000 college students and 10,000 corporate executives in Bangalore, Coorg, Manipal, Hubli, Vishakapatnam and Mumbai. Our training programmes are so popular that to meet the demand we had to construct our own 6,000 sq.ft training centre in Bangalore, where we conduct life skills and personality development courses on an every-day basis,” says Ajit Kaikini, founder managing director of Bouyancee who threw over a job as chief pharmacist in Bangalore’s Manipal Hospital, to pursue his passion for working with children and youth.

A relatively new non-institutional development is the entry of educators who believe that life skills are best learnt outdoors in natural environments. They stress the importance of experiential education — learning by doing — and provide children opportunities to learn life skills in joyous, fun-filled, scenic environments through adventure sports. Among the reputable outdoor education providers are Born Free Tourism, Ibex Expeditions, Wilder Trails, iDiscoveri (mentioned earlier) and Outdoor Education Trust.

Comments Avishkar Tendle, a trained mountaineer, certified wilderness responder of Wilderness Medical Associates (USA) and programme director of Outdoor Education Trust, a Mumbai-based experiential education firm promoted in 2002: “It is now widely accepted that learning through experience has greater impact upon students and enables them to take quick decisions with confidence. Through adventure sports — rock climbing, trekking, camping, natural trails, rappelling and rope climbing — children learn valuable skills such as teamwork, discipline, alertness and even subjects such as biology, natural history and geography. Moreover they become aware of their capabilities and limitations and learn to manage available resources optimally. The outcome of outdoor activities is wider horizons, greater understanding of textbook matter, environmental awareness and physical and mental skills building.”

The response of private sector schools in particular to outdoor and classroom-based life skills programmes has been enthusiastic. With increasing pressure upon school managements to deliver academic excellence while striking a balance between curricular and extra-curricular education, school principals are happy to outsource life skills training, which is increasingly being expected by parent communities.

“I entirely welcome professionally managed companies offering life skills education in schools. Such suppleme-ntary education complements the academic curriculum and opens up minds to the world beyond mere academics to help develop intro-spection, self-analysis, communication, and critiquing skills,” says Malini Khapri, project coordinator, life skills education and head of the English department of the high profile Modern School, Delhi, which has signed up for iDiscoveri’s iQuest programme.

However some school managements prefer to develop their own in-house skills training modules to dovetail with their academic curriculums. These include the new genre of upscale international and new age schools where teacher pupil ratios are enviably low, creating time and opportunities for experimentation with supplementary co-curricular life skills development programmes.

Box 2

Life Skills education providers

The rising popularity of life skills education in schools, colleges and industry has prompted a sudden spurt in the promotion of a spate of corporate-style life skills education firms which provide well-designed learning programmes. Some of the big players in this booming market are:

iDiscoveri 
Promoted: 1996
Reach: Ten schools across six cities
Programmes: iQuest, Educator Development and Positive Parenting, Youreka, Alife, Inward Bound
Annual revenue (2004-05): Rs.5 crore

The Activity 
Promoted: 1997
Reach: 16,000 students in 21 schools in Hyderabad and Bangalore
Programmes: Activity life skills curriculum for schools, parents and teachers 
Annual revenue: Rs.3 crore

SmartKids Pvt Ltd
Promoted: 2000
Reach: 22,000 students in 30 schools across 12 cities
Programmes: Life skills curriculum for schools and Insight Out
Annual revenue: Rs.1 crore

Buoyancee
Promoted: 1992
Reach: 200,000 school and 50,000 college students in Bangalore, Coorg, Manipal, Hubli, and Mumbai
Programmes: Short-duration workshops on communication skills, personality development, public speaking, confidence building, positive self-esteem etc
Annual revenue: Rs.60 lakh

Outdoor Education Trust
Promoted: 2002
Reach: 1,500 students in Mumbai
Programmes: Camping, trekking, nature trails, rappelling and rope climbling

For instance the Mumbai-based Kangaroo Kids Education Pvt Ltd, which manages 49 schools (including Kangaroo Kids Preschools, Gymbaroo Toddlers Club and Billabong High primary schools from classes I-VIII) across 15 cities, has developed its own life skills curriculum for affiliated schools. Says Lina Ashar, a B.Ed from Victoria College, Melbourne who founded Kangaroo Kids in 1993 with one school and 25 students: “We have designed a comprehensive curriculum which reflects our education philosophy and is delivered in our schools by our teachers. By integrating life and social skills education with the curriculum we hope to produce students capable of dealing with dynamic and challenging situations in an increasingly competitive world.”

However while in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Bangalore, life skills education is the rage with every self-respecting school either outsourcing it or offering its own, in academics-obsessed conservative Chennai it doesn’t figure on the radar screens of even the most well-known mainstream schools, who pride themselves on their students’ excellent results in board examinations. Our Chennai correspondent Hemalatha Raghupathi despite a two-week manhunt, couldn’t locate a single reputable life skills educator to interview for this feature.

Nalini Ravindran, principal of the highly reputed CBSE-affiliated National Public School, Chennai offers an explanation. “School education in Chennai is of good quality but too academically oriented with all the emphasis on examination success. There are hardly any firms providing life skills education in Chennai mainly because of the high cost involved, which has to be borne by students. In Bangalore, which has a floating population and cosmopolitan Mumbai, people have the affordability and willingness to try out new ideas.”

Certainly parents across the country have been quick to discern the utilitarian value of avant garde life skills education. Says home-maker Prem Batra whose son Kavya studies in class VIII in Delhi’s Laxman Public School: “It’s patent that there’s more to learning than thick textbooks. Learning is also about inculcating survival skills in children to face life’s challenges. I’m very happy that life skills are taught in my son’s school in a structured way — they are holistic and tackle everything from aesthetics to communication skills. I’ve already begun to see positive changes in my son’s attitude and behaviour.”

Increased receptivity of parents and school managements to life skills education can be credited to Indian industry’s demand for professionals with attributes beyond academic capability. In the new era of intensifying global competition corporate warriors need to possess a multitude of complementary skills including communication savviness, on-the-run decision-making and off duty social skills and sensitivities which are the prerequisites of success in the new liberal global order.

Comments Aruna Newton, head of design and research at the Infosys Leadership Institute, Mysore a state-of-the-art training institute of the blue chip IT transnational Infosys Technologies (annual sales: Rs.6,859 crore): “At Infosys behavioural competency is an important job requirement. We have a well-structured on-going training schedule which focuses on developing a range of competencies, starting from analytical skills, relationship management, team work, and leadership, to communication skills. These life skills are crucial to the jobs they perform and ideally should be taught in schools, which need to ready pupils for the changing work environment.” 

With industry awareness of the critical importance of life skills education filtering down to schools, colleges and other education institutions, the boom in life skills education is here to stay. A development which is certain to be welcomed by all right thinking people within a nation which is in the vanguard of the contemporary world’s most gauche and boorish societies. 

With Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai); Neeta Lal (Delhi) & Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)

Also read: Life Skills: New Mantra of Indian Education