Only 4 out of 10 youth in India have heard of ‘21st-century skills’

Overall, the surveyed youth were more likely to have heard of specific skill terms they were asked about than about the general term ‘life skills’.

Only about four out of every 10 youth surveyed reported having heard of the term ‘life skills’ or ‘21st century skills’, according to ‘The Voices Survey’, which was conducted by Life Skill Collaborative in partnership with Breakthrough, Quest Alliance, and Pratham, and shared exclusively with Moneycontrol.

Older youth (age 19-22) were more likely to have heard about life skills than their younger counterparts (age 14-18), said the survey, conducted across 11 districts, and covering 15,856 youth, 13,806 parents, and 2,366 school teachers.

The ‘21st-century skills’ in question refer to a set of abilities and competencies that are considered essential for success in the modern world. These skills go beyond traditional academic knowledge and include critical thinking, creativity, digital literacy, and cultural awareness, among others.

These skills are considered important for success in various aspects of life, including education, work, and personal development in the 21st century. They emphasise a holistic approach to learning and preparing individuals for a rapidly changing and interconnected world.

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Youth with more years of education, more access to mobile phones, and more educated parents were also more likely to have heard of life skills. There was little variation by gender.

Both the quantitative survey data as well as the qualitative focus group discussions (FGDs) data suggest that even when youth reported knowing about life skills, they were often referring to vocational skills or other types of everyday skills.

For example, the survey data shows that while intangible socioeconomic skills like relationship management and coping with stress are considered life skills by around 90 percent of youth, tangible skills like cooking and cycling were considered life skills by about 80 percent of the respondents.

In an FGD with a girls’ group in Haridwar District, participants confused ‘life skills’ with Kaushal Kishor Yojna, referring to centres where computer and tailoring courses are offered.

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Rukmini Banerji, Chief Executive Officer, Pratham Education Foundation said, “The findings underline the urgent need for initiatives that offer our young people opportunities to understand and acquire life skills. The public education system has a very important role to play in enabling this."

‘Critical thinking’ missing

Youth were familiar with most specific life skill terms, but ‘resilience’ and ‘critical thinking’ were major exceptions. The Voices survey asked youth whether they had heard of a set of 10 life skills considered to be important in the Indian context, as per UNICEF. These were a subset of the 52 skills included in the India Life Skills Glossary.

Overall, the surveyed youth were more likely to have heard of specific skill terms they were asked about than about the general term ‘life skills’. In almost all cases, males and older youth were slightly more likely to report familiarity with the term than females or younger youth.

While ‘decision making’ and ‘problem-solving’ were terms that were familiar to more than seven out of every 10 youth surveyed, the majority struggled with ‘critical thinking’ and ‘resilience’.

Both youth and their parents rely on the education system to teach them about life skills. Among youth who reported familiarity with life skills, the most common source of information was a teacher (65 percent) followed by school books (36 percent).

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Across all youth, the vast majority thought that they could learn about life skills in their school or college (86 percent). Most surveyed parents also believed that their children could learn about life skills from educational institutions (75 percent).

75% of trainers know about ‘life skills’

More than 90 percent of surveyed teachers had heard about the term ‘life skills’ as well as the different life skill terms they were asked about, except ‘resilience’ and ‘critical thinking’. This may be partially due to the convenience sampling procedures followed to find respondents.

However, their responses suggest that school teachers are nonetheless unclear about what life skills consist of. For example, six out of every 10 surveyed teachers believe that life skills, soft skills, and moral education are the same thing.

Similar results were obtained from the 348 surveyed ITI trainers sampled from 29 districts in Tamil Nadu.

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More than 75 percent of surveyed trainers had heard about the term ‘life skills’ as well as the different life skill terms they were asked about, again excepting resilience and critical thinking. However, six out of every 10 surveyed trainers believe that life skills, soft skills, and moral education are the same thing.