Educart Explores Life Skills As The Foundation For Future Ready Education

On 27th June, 2026, the fourth session under the CPD Webinar Series was conducted by Educart. The session brought educators together from across the country for an engaging discussion on life skills education.

The webinar was led by Ms. Nikita Porwal, Director and Owner, Birla Open Minds International School and the discussion was facilitated by Mr. Nishant Lakra.

Workshop At A Glance

• Topic: Life Skills
• Speaker: Ms. Nikita Porwal
• Discussion Led By: Mr. Nishant Singh Lakra
• Date: 27 June, 2026
• Duration: 2 Hours
• Type of Event: Continuous Professional Development Training (CPD) Webinar
• Organized By: Educart
• Participation Fee: Paid

The session was about a very important question in today's education system: Are schools preparing students only for examinations, or are they preparing them for life?

Looking Beyond Academic Achievement

The webinar began with highlighting that while academic knowledge helps students perform well in examination, life skills help them:

• Make informed decisions
• Manage emotions
• Build healthy relationships
• Respond effectively to everyday situations

To make the discussions more relatable, a fictional character journey of Aarav, a Class 9th student, was introduced. Through ten everyday school life situations, participants explored the transforming of classroom experiences into opportunities to develop key life skills like:

• Self-awareness
• Empathy
• Communication
• Critical thinking
• Stress management
• Decision-making
• Resilience
• Digital responsibility
• Problem-solving
• Goal setting

The stories depicted that these skills are developed best through continuous practice rather than isolated lessons.

Life Skills Versus Livelihood Skills

A major part of the webinar focused on understanding the difference between life skills and livelihood skills. While livelihood skills prepare students for employment and careers, life skills help them become more emotionally intelligent, socially responsible and ethically grounded individuals.

The discussion further focused on the fact that schools often invest a lot of effort on achieving academic excellence but comparatively less on nurturing important life competencies like:

• Emotional regulation
• Resilience
• Interpersonal competence

On reflecting on the discussion, participants understood how these qualities ultimately influence a student's ability to succeed not only in professional life but also in personal relationships.

Rethinking Comparison in Classrooms

Within all the discussions about life skills, came the most thought-provoking discussion which was centered around how some practices unintentionally promote comparison within the classroom. Some of the practices can be:

• Frequent ranking of students
• Public announcements of marks
• An excessive focus on toppers
• Constant comparison with peers

Teachers reflected on the same understanding how these practices can gradually weaken students' confidence and self belief. The session encouraged educators to shift their focus from identifying weaknesses to recognising individual strengths of every learner. The discussion urged teachers to ensure these instead:

• Create classroom environments where every child feels valued
• Encourage students to recognise their own strengths
• Build confidence through positive reinforcement
• Motivate learners to improve at their own pace

Understanding the Students' Digital World

The discussion within the webinar touched every aspect of a student's life where life skills are important and can be incorporated. The webinar explores how learners are shaped by digital ecosystems around them built by:

• Social media algorithms
• Online trends
• Digital influencers
• Curated success stories

Knowing these ecosystems, the discussion molded around the idea that being responsible online is now a very important life skill for students. Teachers were encouraged to guide students to:

• Think before everything they believe online
• Check facts before sharing anything
• Understand the difference between what is true and what is misleading
• Be careful about how they present themselves, both publicly and privately on the internet

Creatively Bringing Life Skills into Everyday Classroom Practice

Rather than just limiting life skills education to discussion, the webinar asked teachers to focus on creating real opportunities to practice life skills within the classroom setting. Some participants exchanged practical strategies that can be integrated into their classrooms including:

• Buddy systems for welcoming new students
• Collaborative problem-solving activities
• Structured group discussions
• Reflective exercises after school events
• Budgeting tasks
• Role plays
• Entrepreneurship fairs
• Model-making challenges
• Time-bound decision-making activities

The session emphasises that experiential learning allows students to build confidence, communication, collaboration, and leadership skills through participation, reflection and continuous improvement.

Building Future Decision Makers and Resilient Learners

The webinar focused on helping students develop sound decision making abilities from an early age. Teachers discussed the importance of encouraging students to make small independent decisions and reflect on their outcomes, slowly developing responsibility and confidence.

The most powerful reflection around this discussion was that:

A good decision is one that a student can confidently explain to both parents and teachers.

The discussion then moved to resilience. Participants talked about how schools need to change the way they look at failure. Instead of seeing mistakes as something negative, they should be seen as chances to learn and improve. With examples from successful organisations, entrepreneurs and professionals, the webinar showed that people often become stronger by facing challenges, not by always succeeding.

Every Classroom Interaction is A Life Skill Opportunity

Towards the end of the webinar, the participants left with practical classroom strategies and a renewed perspective that every interaction inside a school is an opportunity to build skills that students will carry throughout their lives.

It concluded with a strong message that life skills cannot be developed through lectures alone, but also require school culture, meaningful experiences and consistent teacher behaviour.

Teachers were encouraged to prepare students for the future by going beyond academic excellence and equipping them with skills like navigating relationships, uncertainty, technology, emotions, and the complexities of modern life with confidence and responsibility.

Through its CPD Webinar Series, Educart continues to provide educators with meaningful professional learning opportunities that support overall teaching practices and help schools nurture future-ready learners.