Welsh Youth Parliament say lack of life skills in schools is a 'crime'

The Welsh Youth Parliament believe the lack of education on finance, mortgages and tax, diversity and inclusion is a "crime".

Almost 50% of pupils say they only receive one lesson of life skills a year. The Youth Parliament report suggests ways in which schools can introduce life skills into the new school curriculum.

The students said they are leaving school as “A* robots with no knowledge of the real world” or how to deal with basic parts of life.

The Youth Parliament ran surveys for adults and young people and held consultation events which have been compiled to make a report. Once it is published it will be put forward to the Government who can then refer to the report to make changes to the new curriculum.

What did the results find?

• Although lots of students were learning about internet safety (around 85%), not enough were learning about Dealing with Grief, Sign Language and Political Education (around 10%).

• Adults and young people had varying ideas about what they should learn and how prepared they felt for adult life.

• Students said they want to learn more about Life Saving and Dealing with Stress.

What should schools do?

• Amongst many recommendations, the report suggested that a national Life Skills specification should be created to outline what schools should be teaching.

• Schools should also appoint Life Skills Co-ordinators to ensure that the same skills are being taught in every school.

• Dedicated PSE days should stop as many students see this is as a “day off” and should instead be replaced by Life Skills lessons once every two weeks.

• Life Skills could also be incorporated into the normal subjects to make it more integrated into the students’ learning.

• Schools could adopt a Life Skills logo to clearly mark when these lessons are being taught across the curriculum.

• There could also be a mix of internal and external teachers for the different Life Skills subjects.