18 organisations come together to launch Life Skills Collaborative for the youth of India

With the aim to support government agencies and education institutions by building a life skills platform that can aid in the transformation of India’s learning ecosystem, 18 organizations have come together to announce the launch of the Life Skills Collaborative (LSC).

In the first phase, the LSC will work in tandem with state governments across Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, and Mizoram to bring contextual, social, and cultural inputs to the development of life skills among the young people of India.

The Collaborative comprises organizations with diverse and global expertise in education, skill development, health and gender with a commitment to collaborate in deepening the understanding of life skills, designing learning tools that nurture life skills, and developing context-relevant assessments to measure progress, share learnings and inform system change India.

The current collaborators include Breakthrough, Center for Science of Student Learning, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Dream A Dream, Echidna Giving, Gnothi Seauton, ICRW, Kaivalya Education Foundation, Magic Bus, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Omidyar Network India, Porticus, Pratham, Quest Alliance, Room To Read, Sattva Consulting, and Shantilal Muttha Foundation.

Speaking about the launch, Vishal Talreja, an LSC Collaborator and Co-Founder of Dream A Dream, said, “One in three children in India live in extreme poverty and have stunted and/or wasted growth. Children from vulnerable backgrounds are exposed to a combination of adverse experiences causing an irrefutable impact on their physical and mental health. Empathy-based transformative pedagogy, experiential learning, and mentoring can help young people immensely.”

The Life Skills Collaborative will focus on 3 core areas:

1. VOICES, a nationwide engagement with youth, parents, and teachers to capture their voices and translate them to insights that can drive the integration of life skills within public education systems.

2. GLOSSARY, a set of definitions that serves as the vocabulary to discuss life skills in India and establish the foundation for discussing and aligning on outcomes, designing assessments across community, practitioners, and government.

3. ASSESSMENTS, will focus on the creation, establishment, and dissemination of an assessment repository for adolescents, teachers, and the system. At the adolescent level, this will assess student’s capacities and strengths in the age groups 11-14 years and 15-18 years; at the teacher level, it will assess the ability of the teacher to foster life skills in an adolescent; at the system level, it will assess the readiness of the system to deliver life skills.

Rathish Balakrishnan, an LSC Collaborator, and Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Sattva Consulting, said “Young people often struggle to access education and employment opportunities, limiting their engagement in society and stunting their potential to live a full life. Equipping them with life skills can change this immensely. While there is a lot of interest in life skills, there is a lack of a common vocabulary and effective assessments, which limits its potential. By building credible and system-ready public goods, the Life Skills Collaborative can accelerate the effective adoption of life skills across the ecosystem.”

In recent times, the need for developing stronger life skills has become more acute. Focusing on building life skills in the next generation is imperative in enabling them to handle different situations capably. In a country like India, where a vast majority of the population is young, life skill development enables young people to direct and manage their lives positively.

Geeta Goel, an LSC Collaborator, and Country Director, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF, India), added, “The Life Skills Collaborative is an innovative attempt to solve a wicked problem – the development of life skills among the young people of India. To achieve this goal, it is essential to support organizations, institutions, and government agencies in building a more inclusive learning environment suited towards promoting life skills.”

What is Life Skills Collaborative?

The Life Skills Collaborative (LSC) is a collaborative of organizations backed by multi-sectoral expertise, focused on championing life skills for India’s young people to thrive, through an extensive on-ground outreach program. Life Skills – or social-emotional skills – are guiding principles that help navigate through adversity. These are essential for India’s youth to grow, thrive and succeed.

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