Revista Internacional de Psicologia Escolar e Cognitiva
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Abstrato

Life Skills Training (LST) Program for Young People: Justifications, Foundations and Contents

Belay Tefera Kibret

Life skills training (LST) is an important tool supporting healthy developmental transitions into adulthood. Although it has been in Ethiopia for some time, it was narrowly conceived, non-contextualized, and lacked uniformity and collaborative spirit among implementing partners. This paper discussed the importance of instituting LST for young persons aged 10 to 24 years and then delineated the foundations that give essence to LST programming. Having set out these foundations, then it attempted to sketch out the LST program package mainly focusing on the meaning, goals, and life skills categories for possible inclusion. Extensive review of related research was carried out towards achieving these objectives. The paper argued that there are lots of concerns out there on the ground that make LST provision a necessity. These concerns can be addressed if LST programming is contextually relevant. These context-friendly conceptions and designs were finally pointed out at length including how LST be understood, its ultimate goals, and the general and specific life skills categories that need to be integrated in a program claiming to be offered for young people in Ethiopia. This paper was extracted from a bigger national document, “National Life Skills training program for young persons in Ethiopia” submitted to the former Ministry of Youth, Culture, and Sports with the present author as a principal consultant.