Student Life Skills Flashcards
During school, college, university or your early career, it’s likely you’ll make a mistake or face an unexpected obstacle. Rest assured, this happens to us all – not just as young people but throughout our lives and careers. Making mistakes and facing challenges head on is sometimes the only way to learn the right behaviours and best responses to new situations. However, it can feel daunting at first and often that everyone else knows more than you. Our Student Life Skills Flashcards will help you consider situations that could arise and how best to deal with them.
What’s the worst thing that could happen? You make a bad choice, say the wrong thing, forget something important or have an argument about something you shouldn’t. We all make mistakes and sometimes things happen which are simply outside of our control. To deal with these situations effectively, we need to develop ‘life skills’.
Life skills are simply the skills you need to make the most out of life. They are often gained over time and with experience and they’ll help you be adaptive and respond positively to the challenge ahead. Using our Student Life Skills Flashcards, you’ll be encouraged to start thinking about some of the most common challenges young people face to start a discussion about the best way to respond and the life skills you’ll need to develop.
Download our Flashcards to use in lessons, careers sessions or even at home:
How to use
This short group activity focuses on helping young people to consider the different challenges they may face as they prepare for adulthood and taking the next steps after school or college. It encourages them to find solutions, consider resilience and learn about support networks.
Time to Play: 10 to 30 minutes
Setting Up: Print out the Life Skills Flashcards and cut up into individual cards/problems. Display around the room or provide a few of each flashcard on each table. Ask students to work in pairs or small groups. Write or display a list of discussion points on the board or print out a copy for each table/group.

Instructions:
Provide a brief introduction to common student challenges and the importance of developing effective problem solving skills to cope with set-backs.
Ask students to work together to review the potential challenges on the flashcards displayed and consider the following discussion points:
- Is this something you have experienced before?
- What were the consequences/outcomes of this problem? What do you think they would be?
- If you have experienced this before, how did you overcome it? If not, how do you think you would tackle this challenge?
- What skills did you use (or would you use)?
- Who could you ask for help with this problem?
- What advice would you give to a friend or classmate who is experiencing this problem?
- How could you turn this problem to your advantage?
A blank flashcard has also been provided. Ask students to consider any problems or challenges they have experienced or think could arise in the future that were not used as an example or to choose one which is most important to them. Can they think of ways to tackle this problem, the skills they would need or where they could go for help?
A second blank flashcard can be used to list some of the problems or challenges identified by their friends and classmates.
View our Common Students Concerns to learn about the challenges young people are likely to face or find out about Support Services for young people here in Stockport to help you.