If you’ve ever wondered whether you were absent from school the day everyone learned the art of successful adulting, you’re not alone.
More than 94% of parents surveyed by an education charity believe that life skills, such as managing finances, problem solving and communication, ought to be a key part of the curriculum, but the savings service Wealthify found that three-quarters of adults taking part in a study did not have the knowledge they needed to make good financial decisions.
From how to budget to administering first aid, doing basic DIY and pitching ideas, many of us wish that alongside maths and English lessons, school had given us a grounding in the practical, real-world knowledge that would set us up for adulthood.
Here are the skills we’d like to see on an alternative curriculum that would help everyone enjoy a smoother ride through life.
1 Understanding credit
“I’m not even sure I understand credit now, despite having a mortgage, a credit card and a rented car,” says Ben Richman, 42.
It’s a common feeling, says Sue Owen-Bailey, social innovation and sustainability manager for consumer credit reporting agency Equifax. She has worked in financial education for many years and says that although the subject does appear on the national curriculum, “when I go into schools to talk about things like APR and credit scores, teachers often aren’t confident about them either”.
Understanding how to use credit responsibly, including building a good score to improve our chances of being approved by future lenders on favourable terms and interest rates, is a vital life skill – and it’s far less complicated than we might think.
“All teenagers should be taught about simple ways to build a good credit score, such as being on the electoral roll, having a bank account registered to your home address and using credit responsibly,” she says.
2 Time management
Procrastinating, dawdling over insignificant tasks and putting off bigger ones until the last moment – how many of us could be better at time management?
“For a lot of my clients, it’s a major issue,” says Michelle Leivars, founder of The Female Business Mentor. “It can be really debilitating if you don’t have a hold on the structure of your day.”
She would love to see schools teaching practical lessons such as how to plan a week, setting deadlines, prioritising important tasks and breaking them down into more manageable chunks. “Learning these skills helps so much with focus, feeling confident and in control rather than overwhelmed, and with what we can achieve,” she says.
3 Self-defence
How to keep ourselves – and our possessions – safe as we walk the streets is one of the most important lessons we can learn, yet many of us never do.
According to Peter Consterdine, a karate expert, former bodyguard and founder of the British Combat Association, actual combat skills aren’t what most people need.
“Lots of us walk around plugged into our phones and oblivious to everything going on around us,” he says. “To avoid being in unsafe situations, we need to be far more aware of our environment and the people in it – for instance, if you see someone whose behaviour makes you wary, you might be able to duck into a shop to avoid them. Teaching children these skills is vital.”
4 DIY
Where once every home would have had a toolbox and inhabitants who prided themselves on knowing how to wield a drill, 52% of people who took part in a survey a couple of years back said they avoided even the simplest DIY due to a lack of skills.
Emma Jane Palin, interior stylist and founder of the DIY and decorating shop Our Curated Abode, in Ramsgate, says: “Traditionally, a lot of these skills were passed down, but somewhere along the line this seems to have been lost.” Her own skills have given her “a huge sense of satisfaction and saved me thousands of pounds”, something she believes all of us could achieve if we were shown how during our teenage years.
5 How to budget
Ensuring our money covers all of our outgoings is one of the most fundamental elements of adulthood – and it can be tough, particularly during a cost of living crisis. But it’s crucial that we pay our bills on time every month, says Owen-Bailey, to ensure our debt doesn’t spiral and so we keep our credit score and report healthy.
“Children need to learn the difference between ‘want’ and ‘need’ so they can learn to prioritise their spending,” she says. “They might want Netflix, but they need their bus fare to get to school.
“It’s more important than ever to teach these principles, because the rise of influencers and the ease of online shopping make it easier than ever to accumulate debt quickly and struggle.”
6 How to fail
Much emphasis is placed on passing exams during our school careers but, arguably, learning how to fail could be equally valuable to us in the long term.
“Fear of failure is common, but it can stop us from engaging in life,” says psychotherapist Susie Masterson. In her work, she uses the concept of treating everything we attempt as an experiment. “We can’t fail in experiments – we’re simply working through a hypothesis,” she says. “I invite my clients to treat every ‘result’ with curiosity rather than judgment.
“Embracing failure doesn’t only improve our resilience, it can also guide us to what is important to us and enable us to discount what isn’t – something we should all begin learning as early as possible.”
7 How to pitch an idea
“I’m terrible at giving my ideas at work,” says Laura Barnes, 35. “I often stay quiet in meetings, only to hear someone else offer a similar idea and get all the praise. I wish I’d learned to be more confident at it.”
Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a cog in a big machine, pitching ideas usually features in working life. Many of us find the thought terrifying, which is why Leivars believes we should be practising from an early age.
“Children have brilliant imaginations, so we should capitalise on that by allowing them to grow their ideas – and their confidence – in a structured and safe way at school,” she says. “Standing in front of their peers and getting constructive feedback is an incredibly valuable experience that would make the process far less painful later in life.”
8 First aid
According to the British Red Cross, only 5% of adults feel confident and knowledgable enough to provide first aid in emergency situations, so it’s little surprise that experts believe it should be taught in every school.
Emma Hammett, founder of First Aid for Life, says that although first aid is on the curriculum, it doesn’t go far enough. She argues that every child should get a first aid qualification: “It’s an essential life skill.”
She points out that up to 59% of deaths from injury could potentially be prevented if first aid was given prior to the arrival of medical services. The British Heart Foundation says that in some countries that already teach CPR in schools, cardiac arrest survival rates are more than double those of the UK.
“Children learning more first aid skills could drastically and positively impact the health of the nation,” Hammett adds.
9 How to negotiate
While some people seem born to hustle, the rest of us can find negotiating – whether over a pay rise, the price of a house or even during a disagreement with a loved one – excruciating.
But if we’re too timid to negotiate, or go about it ineptly, we’re going to end up getting less than we deserve, says Leivars. She proposes using fun games as a way to teach schoolchildren concepts such as when to compromise and when to stand firm, giving them valuable tools to use throughout life. “Something like a mini Dragons’ Den where they not only pitch an idea but have to negotiate over money, would help them learn about communicating effectively and advocating for themselves while listening to others,” she says.
10 How to spot a scam
In its most recent fraud report, UK Finance records nearly 3m cases, encompassing everything from romance scams to remote banking cons, resulting in losses of £1.2bn in 2023. It’s proof that while we may think frauds are easy to spot – such as the Nigerian cash transfer scam – many are far less obvious.
“Scammers have become increasingly sophisticated,” says chartered cybersecurity professional Thomas Balogun. “Teaching kids and young adults to pause, question and verify messages can make a huge difference in staying safe online.”
Lessons in the most common pitfalls, such as reminding young people to check where an unexpected message comes from before responding, and, if they get a request for their bank details, searching for and calling the company’s official number to ensure the request is genuine, could make a vast difference in the years to come.
Above all, Balogun would teach this maxim: “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.” It’s something most of us have learned the hard way – so being taught it at school would give us a great head start.
Want to know more about how your credit rating stacks up? Find out by heading to the Equifax website
