International Lifeskills Olympiad

Posted by priyanka arora on July 29th, 2019

Skillizen Learning Foundation, a Singapore based global socio-educational company, has announced the launch of registrations for Life Skills Olympiad, 2019.

"International Life Skills Olympiad (ILSO) is the world’s 1st and only olympiad that tests young children on their Life Skills Aptitude. This global test is specifically designed for school children (including the home-schooled ones) from Class III to XII. This test will primarily focus on evaluating real world skills and competencies that are critical for young children to manage and succeed in their personal, professional and social lives. The most unique thing about this Olympiad is that it  gives the participants an opportunity to make decisions in real life situations by the application of critical life skills such as leadership, ethics, teamwork, communication, empathy, goal setting etc.

Interested parents or schools can register the students on www.lifeskillsolympiad.org by paying a nominal registration fee that includes life skills guides, practice questions and mock test. In 2018, large number of children from 61 countries participated in this global online olympiad. Besides many other grand prizes, the winning children were given a free air ticket to visit Harvard University.

In today’s constantly changing environment, having Life Skills is a critical part of being able to meet the demands of daily life. The exponential changes in the global economies over the past few years have been influencing education, 
employment, and personal lives. To keep up with the increasing pace of modern life, young children need to be tooled with Life Skills such as Communications, Teamwork, Leadership, Critical Thinking, Ethics , Smart Consumer Literacy, and many more. Today’s Young Citizens will have to face many new challenges over the course of their lives, with associated stress, frustration, and the need to evolve. UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO, CBSE, and many other educational and humanitarian organizations advocate transferring of Life Skills to students during the moulding stages of their life.
Research done at Harvard University in 2011, suggests that, the most effective method to impart Critical Life Skills to the young citizens is to transfer them during the Hardwiring phase of the human brain. i.e., between the age of 6 to 16 years.
Having a strong foundation in Life Skills is the Key to become a Successful Human Being and a Global Citizen of the 21st Century. 

Life Skills are the skills that we need, to deal effectively with the challenges in everyday life, whether at school, at work or in our personal lives. One could say that it is a ‘set of skills that allows us to live our life to its fullest’..
We want our school going children to be successful in their lives, to be happy, to lead and manage their world with proficiency. All these statements, when we think about it, translate into one wish: We want the Young Citizens of the world to have the right Life Skills.
A definitive list of Life Skills is something that educators, governments and employers continue to discuss and debate whether to call them Life Skills, 21st Century Skills or Soft Skills. But one thing they all agree upon is the fact that the students who are able to understand and use these skills, along with their school education, will be much better placed to take advantage of the personal and professional opportunities in future.

Prevalent schooling curriculums around the world are primarily knowledge or fact-based curriculums. They do not provide the learners with much scope to assess and acquire practical Life Skills. 

For more information or to enroll, go to http://www.lifeskillsolympiad.org