Education is a key pillar of our society and human evolution. The direction where our society goes is directly dependent upon the quality of awareness and education we provide to children from an early age.

Especially Life skills. Making children aware of soft skills aka life skills from an early age, not only helps them in their growth and development, but contributes eventually to society building & nation building at large.

A society will only thrive, if there is good interpersonal harmony, intrapersonal harmony, growth vision & strong integrity. And that’s what Soft skills learning imparts

Children are the baton holders. The future lies on their shoulders. It’s our responsibility to consciously shape the budding generation so that they shape the future for the good! For themselves, and for the nation!

How are these helpful?

• Mutual understanding & Cooperation – Soft skills like Empathy & Compassion, Relationship building & Teamwork, Negotiations skills go a long way in reaching good mutual understanding, cooperation and collaboration among its people. Not putting people into boxes, identifying biases, thinking win-win, respecting different perspectives, all are the foundational learnings which contribute to the above goal

• Creativity and Growth mindset – Innovation is a function of creative thinking and growth mindset. When the thought process and attitude is consciously nurtured from an early age, it makes it easy for one to think rationally, critically, out of the box and be creators than consumers. Also, the foundation of growth mindset where people are forward looking and adapt as per the changing environments for the better, has to be laid from childhood

• Strong demeanor – Soft skills help people to deal with failures well, face challenges well, adapt as per circumstance, demonstrate courage & perseverance and much more, which makes the overall demeanor of individual members and society strong. The thought process and attitudes are shaped so that it is difficult to shake it up. It not only helps in individual life journeys, but at national or society level as well, external threats are managed pretty well

• Society integration – Society conscience is what gets awakened through soft skills aka life skills and helps people rise in terms of integrity at individual levels and society levels. The society and nation at large is less prone to get harmed by divisive forces and fascists agendas. Mutual respect and tolerance is promoted where people grow with one another than pulling each other down

• Better representation – When people learn how to listen and respond, than to hear and react, communications become better. And with communication, it brings a lot of change in how people carry and represent themselves. When people are more open to perspectives without being too rigid in judgements, discussions become better and all factions stand a chance to represent their thoughts amicably. Also, equality is promoted automatically

• Better avenues and platforms – With topics like critical thinking, Widened perspectives, self identification, entrepreneurship & leadership, people get motivated to pursue their passions, solve key problems and also make good economic value out of it as well. People are no longer confined within a limited set of professions. People shift from survival mode to thriving mode. As people tend to go inwards and find their unique potentials, they gradually start focussing on quality of life and satisfaction metrics, which gives birth to different avenues and platforms

• Collective identity. Unity in diversity – Soft skills teach fundamental things that we all are different. We can never be identical. Even if we belong to a particular sect or community, still we will have differences in other things. So, the lens to see people is not narrow anymore. Acceptance is there. Which eventually leads to greater cohesive force of oneness, which can not be broken down due to fascist or divisive notions

• Less chaotic existence – Humans have grown so ahead than any other species on earth due to our civilized co-existence. Soft skills like negotiations skills, managing disputes, handling criticisms & feedbacks, relationship building, ethics, rationalizing ill feelings eliminate the majority of friction points and anchor our thought process towards settling disagreements rather than breeding disputes. Moreover, people tend to support each other, be more empathetic and grow together

• Better financial literacy – Topics like money management, entrepreneurship help in better financial literacy and wise decision making on parts of citizens, leading to good worthy businesses to flourish. It pushes economic activity in a very balanced way and no longer people are suppressed, deprived or dependant on fate

Soft skills/Life skills are important to be imparted from an early age because it puts us in a direction which is must to become self-sufficient and self-reliant. Afterall, all the major countries of this world have one thing in common. They all are way ahead than the rest of the world countries in terms of soft skills that they were able to get advanced in all parameters so early. Societies get shaped by Soft Skills and nothing else!

Bloom – Soft Skills for Children