life--skills--training

Student Life Skills Training

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), life skills are defined as "the ability to adopt adaptive and positive behaviors that enable individuals to cope with the challenges and demands of everyday life." Experts have emphasized the positive impact of life skills on utilizing intellectual and cognitive capacities, preventing violent behaviors, enhancing self-reliance and self-confidence, and particularly reducing substance abuse. They believe that successful learning of life skills influences one's sense of self-efficacy and perception of oneself and others.

In line with preventing and reducing psychosocial harms and enhancing students' capabilities, the Counseling and Lifestyle Center of Qom University of Technology designed and implemented a course titled "Student Life Skills" as a credit-bearing unit. This course aims to teach the essential skills needed for the lives of newly admitted undergraduate students, developed in collaboration with the Vice Chancellor for Education and the University Educational Services Management.

Educational Objectives

- Identifying one's abilities, weaknesses, and responsibilities
- Effectively utilizing skills in emotional regulation, critical thinking, decision-making, stress management, time management and planning, self-awareness, empathy, and interpersonal relationships in personal and professional life
- Learning methods for preventing serious harms, including emotional abuse and substance abuse
- Familiarization with the educational and disciplinary rules and regulations governing the university

Course Syllabus

Part One: Understanding the Nature of Student Life
- Challenges of student life
- Differences between university, students and school, and school students
- Getting to know the university environment (Vice Chancellor for Education, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Vice Chancellor for Research, Vice Chancellor for Cultural Affairs, Disciplinary Committee, Scientific Associations, the Leadership Institution, Basij, Health Center, Physical Education Department, Counseling Center, Entrepreneurship Center, and the Skill Enhancement Office)

Part Two: Academic Skills Training
- Familiarization with educational regulations
- Academic skills: curriculum planning, study and learning methods, concentration exercises, class attendance, independent study, practice and learning of course topics, note-taking, bibliography and using the library
- Exam anxiety and coping with it
- Time management
- Achieving academic success and preventing academic probation
- Introduction to the remediation program for probationary students

Part Three: Self-Knowledge
- Self-awareness
- Self-esteem and ways to enhance it
- Self-efficacy and self-confidence
- Emotional self-regulation and impulses (anger management, anxiety, shyness)
- Stress coping

Part Four: Self-Care and Mental Health
- Healthy lifestyle
- Mental health indicators
- Self-care and care for others

Part Five: Coping with Self-Harm Behaviors
- Definition and types of self-harming behaviors
- Risk assessment and addiction susceptibility

Part Six: Social and Communication Skills
- Communication and personality
- Communication skills with others (cheerfulness, gentle and kind speech, humility, calming, respect, speaking, appropriate responses to appropriate behaviors, appropriate responses to inappropriate behaviors—such as others' rudeness, mockery, teasing)
- Assertiveness skills
- Criticism and disagreement skills
- Communication with classmates

Part Seven: Spiritual Skills
- Analyzing the spiritual dimension of humans as one of their existential aspects
- Spirituality, patience, and tolerance
- Forgiveness

Part Eight: Preparation for Marriage
- The necessity of marriage
- Planning and preparing for marriage
- Indicators of readiness for marriage
- How to make an effective choice