Do schools have a responsibility to teach life skills as part of the curriculum?

Volunteer Section Leader, Clearing and Applications Advisor

I was looking at another thread and saw that one of the things lots of people felt was missing from the curriculum was "life skills".

I'm intrigued to know:

What life skills do you think should be taught by schools?

How far is it schools' responsibility to teach these things to children?

Historically a lot of "life skills" were taught by families. I'm well aware not everyone has the luxury of two loving parents, but should it be schools that take up the mantle here?

More curriculum conversations like this

Reply 1

EBluebear

Every day finances? - budgeting, rents, bills, interest rates?
Basic mending - sewing on buttons and turning up trousers?
Wiring a plug and changing fuses?
Changing a tyre?
Cooking?

Of these, the only one I was taught at secondary school was wiring a plug, although I did make a skirt at primary school.

Reply 2

username5319484

There are more than enough youtube videos to satisfy one's life skill needs so I don't think that life skills should be taught.

Reply 3

Noodlzzz

Original post by hungrysalamander

There are more than enough youtube videos to satisfy one's life skill needs so I don't think that life skills should be taught.

with that logic screw A-levels and GCSEs, plenty of online content.

Reply 4

username5319484

Original post by Noodlzzz

with that logic screw A-levels and GCSEs, plenty of online content.

Employers and universities need a way to accurately measure a student's level of knowledge in core subjects like maths and English which can't be said for life skills.

Reply 5

username5789946

A lot of life skills are taught in schools, it's just by the time students actually need to use them, it's been a long time since they were taught them without using them so they have forgotten them. People will learn things again when they need to.

Most of the other life skills can easily be picked up as you get older so don't need to be taught by schools at all.

Reply 6

TypicalNerd

I believe that whilst some are taught, too few are and often at the wrong times.

Original post by hungrysalamander

There are more than enough youtube videos to satisfy one's life skill needs so I don't think that life skills should be taught.

There should be lessons in which some are taught, because there’s no guarantee that children will learn from family members or have the common sense to actually look up online materials to help them. There’s also another point that not all children have access to the internet, even in a country as developed as the UK.