This week I completed a proposal form explaining the problem I will be focusing on and its audience. I got feedback on this which helped me develop this project further. One of the notes i got from this feedback was that my target audience may be hard to reach the way i wanted. My initial plan was to create something schools could use to teach students ages 15-18 basic life skills however, at this age they are learning set things for their exams so adding life skills into the syllabus may effect the grades of some students and could hinder them in other areas of education. After this was brought to my attention I decided this would be part of my research, to find out if it could be possible or if would be better to create/ promote something outside of school for young people too engage in.
EYA Category & Theme: Smart Learning- teaching basic life skills
Describe your project response as a short Problem:
How can schools help teach students more life skills to help with life after education? How can young people can engage in learning basic life skills in and out of school?
Describe the Problem in a paragraph:
Many schools do not offer classes in basic life skills, such as cooking, sewing, how to do taxes, what is a mortgage how to manage money interview skills etc and if schools do offers these then it tends to be taught based on gender not giving every student an equal chance. Not all young people can learn these things at home which means when they leave school to go to university or into living alone they lack the basic skills to be independent and causing stress that could have been avoided. This is a problem as it can cause unhealthy lifestyles and a lack of independence.
Many news articles have been published on the subject of life skills and often quotes angry parents expressing how they feel about the lack of these skills being taught to their children and also the effect they think it is having on them.
Examples of proof the Problem exists:
https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Life-Lessons-Report_FINAL.pdf
Target Audience: Who is affected most by the problem and how?
16-18 year old’s. Both male and female, those who are leaving or have already left school are affected by this and it alters the way they live and approach independent living. Primarily students in mixed sex schools and all boys schools as all girls schools will teach life skills in a sexist way and teach them skills such as sewing which wouldn’t be an option for all at a mixed school as seen as a feminine skill. (this is an assumption so a solution would be available and suited for all)
Project Scope: Describe the breadth of your project – is it small and focused or are you attempting to help a range of different people or tackle a wider problem? Identify any dangers of being too large or too small in scope.
To reach a wide number of people with in schools. It’s a worldwide issue which may be too wide of an problem to find a solution for however finding a solution for a smaller area could potentially cause a ripple effect and spending on the project could be accessible to everyone. The project should enable students, parents and teachers to all get involved in the topic and make a difference all together. This can be achieved by doing something feasible and accessible for as many people as possible.
Different countries would have to taught different things not everywhere has the same laws for example which alters topics such as taxes which means the problem can only be solved in the UK at this stage due to lack of knowledge and accessibility. Each country would need something different from a solution.