Life Skills: Going Above and Beyond
2020 has been an interesting year. The world is slowly finding a new normal and businesses and industries continue to re-open. We are looking back on these past months of disruption and appreciating the good that has come out of them.
As we continue to serve job seekers and clients, we believe that going above and beyond is a vital part of our business. NWS Sales Director Tracie Basile recently shared that she and a small group of mothers have created an extracurricular Life Skills course for their teenage children. What better way to highlight this value than to let Tracie share her personal story of going above and beyond for her son!
Tracie, you collaborated with some other mothers to create a life skills course for your teenage children. Tell us what you did.
Yes, I put out an outline of skills and several of our friends and family made suggestions. I continued to build the outline from there. My friends who utilized the outline customized it for their own families.
What prompted you to create a course for your son about life skills?
There was so little school work during the remote learning. There are things that just are not taught in school and skills that used to be taught in schools when I was young that are no longer. These are still important life skills to have.
What types of skills felt important to include?
I broke the items into the following categories:
Home Ec.: Cooking, Laundry, Ironing and Food Shopping
Financial: Paying bills, Budgeting, Saving and Investing
Career: Resume-building, Interviewing, Career Research and Business Plan Writing
Safety: Basic First Aid, Fire Safety, and Home Utilities Management (including how to shut off water and gas)
Etiquette: How to Tie a Tie, Table Setting, etc.
What are the main takeaways that you hope your son gets from this course?
I’m hoping that this will help increase his confidence in his basic life skills and advance his motivation to pursue his own interests, while creating quality one-on-one the time with family.
What advice do you have for parents of teens during these unique times?
We have become home teachers without the education or training – that’s hard work! Keeping our teens engaged and learning outside of gaming is difficult. This curriculum has given us a format to do that, and I would encourage other parents to consider implementing a similar skills-building curriculum built around their own values.
