10 Life Skills to teach your children:

Many employers ask students on Work Experience to do basic lifeskills jobs. Too many of our students haven’t ever done these tasks before.

To assist your child into future employment, it is important that they know:

• How to make their bed – builders working away from town, farm workers living in supplied accommodation need to do this without any input from the employer!
• How to operate a washing machine – and iron their good shirts.
• How to wash and dry dishes – as above and in all other jobs where there is no dishwasher onsite.
• How to make a cup of tea or coffee for a client.
• How to sweep a floor – all automotive, engineering, panel beaters, etc. must keep their workshops tidy and clean.
• How to make themselves a decent lunch – there won’t always be a fast food takeaway place down the street – and on beginner wages they can’t afford to eat like this every day.
• How to make nourishing and filling breakfast and dinner meals – a worker cannot survive on toast.
• How to shop. Employers tell us of 25 year olds who have never been into a supermarket!
• How to clean a shower, basin and toilet – at work or when they go flatting.
• How to vote (for 18 year olds) – what is MMP (mixed member proportional), STV (single transferable vote - District Hospital Board voting) or FPP (first past the post).

OK, we're guessing most employers won’t ask your student to do these last two, but they are good life skills to have, and it brings the number to 10!