Ready for the future thanks to life and future skills

School should enable children and young people to successfully deal with the tasks of everyday life. In order to do this, they need life skills. PH Zurich supports schools abroad in the introduction of life skills programmes.

Content of this page

Developing attitudes and values

Children and young people live in a world full of challenges. Constantly confronted with new technologies, conflicts, changing labour markets, and environmental and political changes, they need teaching that not only promotes their cognitive skills, but also helps them to develop attitudes and values. It’s about being open, learning new things, making smart choices and getting involved in the community.

The Department for International Projects in Education at PH Zurich bases its work in the area of life skills on the frameworks of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Flyer life and future skills

Continuing education, materials and programmes

The topic of life skills is receiving an increasing amount of attention in Southeastern Europe. The Department for International Projects in Education provides continuing education on teaching life skills and develops teaching materials in many countries in this area. The continuing education programmes are aimed at teachers, lecturers and NGO staff.

The teaching materials on the topic are modular, which means that they can be adapted to a new target group or a different curriculum as needed. They are available in several languages.

For children, adolescents and young adults from refugee backgrounds, PH Zurich has developed digital programmes that can be taken both online and offline.

Students in Kosovo show the results from their life skills lesson.

News

Lebanon initiative for Education«Social and emotional learning is essential»

Lebanese schoolchildren and teachers are currently facing unprecedented challenges. Joseph Feghaly, a longtime partner in PHZH’s international education projects, shares insights into the situation and how the LIFE project aims to improve conditions.

Chance for ChildrenA Swiss-Ghanaian partnership to improve access to education

As part of a long-standing project, PH Zurich staff regularly conduct trainings for the Ghanaian NPO Chance for Children. This type of international collaboration is essential for the ongoing effort to provide every child with access to education.

Project FOYERExchange on youth work in Tunisia and Switzerland

A delegation from Tunisia visited PH Zurich last week to exchange approaches on youth work and the development of self-competences. Kenza and Emna from Tunisia and Laura from Switzerland report on their experiences.

Services

Projects

Publications and teaching materials

  • Marruncheddu, Sabrina and Wiltrud Weidinger (2016) Life skills education as a means of empowerment for teachers and students: A case study from Romania.

    In: ICERI Conference Proceedings, Seville.

  • Weidinger, Wiltrud (2015) Promoting self-competences and life skills of Roma children – research-based development of an inclusive education programme through pedagogical and didactical key factors.

    ICERI Conference Proceedings 2015. ICERI.

Face, teaching materials for children aged 4 to 12 years (English, Albanian, Macedonian, Serbian, Romanian, Hungarian).

Core, digital teaching materials (Arabic, English, Greek).

Personal development, for 12 school grades, adapted to the new Moldovan school subject “Personal Development”.

Contact

Portrait photo of Prof. Dr. Wiltrud Weidinger Meister

+41 43 305 63 96