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Life skills defined in a general way mean a mix of knowledge, behaviour, attitudes and values and designate the possession of some skill and know-how to do something, or reach an aim. They include competencies such as critical thinking, creativity, ability to organise, social and communication skills, adaptability, problem solving, ability to co-operate on a democratic basis that are needed for actively shaping a peaceful future.

Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life (WHO definition). In particular, life skills are psychosocial competencies and interpersonal skills that help people make informed decisions, solve problems, think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, build healthy relationships, empathise with others, and cope with managing their lives in a healthy and productive manner. Life skills may be directed toward personal actions or actions toward others, or may be applied to actions that alter the surrounding environment to make it conducive to health.

Expression used in one of the following ways, sometimes combining some of the categories:

1- often used to capture skills such as problem-solving, working in teams, networking, communicating, negotiating, etc. Their generic nature - their importance throughout life, in varying contexts - is held in common with literacy skills. These generic skills are seldom, if ever, acquired in isolation from other skills;

2- also used to refer to skills needed in daily life that are strongly connected to a certain context. Examples are livelihood skills, health skills, skills related to gender and family life, and environmental skills. These can be termed 'contextual skills', while accepting that skills are in practice never purely contextual or purely generic…;

3- also used in the school context to refer to any subject matter other than language or mathematics;

4- there are other miscellaneous skills being referred to as life skills, such as cooking, making friends and crossing the street.