The document discusses the roles of a college counsellor in providing life skills training and study skills training to students. It defines life skills as capabilities that empower young people to make positive decisions and develop healthy relationships and lifestyles. Some key life skills discussed are self-awareness, decision making, problem solving, effective communication and coping with stress. Study skills discussed include time management, note taking, active participation and effective reading strategies. The document also covers counsellors providing training to develop students' overall personalities by enhancing traits like responsibility, consideration, humility and empathy.

1. COUNSELLING IN EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS
ROLE OF COLLEGE COUNSELLOR
 Training for life skills and study skills
 Overall personality development
.

2. Definition
UNICEF defines life skills as “a behaviour change or behaviour development
approach designed to address a balance of three areas: knowledge, attitude and
skills”.
Life skills are capabilities that empower young people to take positive action, to
protect themselves and have positive social relationships.
Promoting both their mental well-being and personal development as they are facing
the realities of life.

3. WHO defines life skills as “Abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable
individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life” (WHO
1997).
Life skills are the strategies, abilities, expertise or competences that enable adolescents to
develop positive attitudes and responsible sexual behaviours, leading towards a healthy
lifestyle.
They represent the psycho-social skills that determine valued behaviour
Reflective skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking.
Personal skills such as self-awareness, and interpersonal skills.

4. a. Practicing life skills leads to qualities such as self-esteem,
b. sociability and tolerance, competencies to take action and generate change,
c. and the capability to have the freedom to decide what to do and who to be.
 Life Skills are acquired by direct experience or by teaching and
helping individuals to encounter challenges or meet daily tasks in their lives.
 Skills that are required for well-being and aid individuals to develop into active
and productive members of their communities are considered as life skills.

5. The Ten core Life Skills as laid down by WHO are:
• Self-awareness
• Empathy
• Critical thinking
• Creative thinking
• Decision making
• Problem Solving
• Effective communication
• Interpersonal relationship
• Coping with stress
• Coping with emotion

6.  Self-awareness includes recognition of ‘self’, our character, our strengths
and weaknesses, desires and dislikes. Developing self-awareness can help us to
recognize when we are stressed or feel under pressure.
 Empathy - To have a successful relationship with our loved ones and society
at large, we need to understand and care about other peoples’ needs,
desires and feelings. Empathy is the ability to imagine what life is like for another
person.
 Critical thinking is an ability to analyze information and experiences in an
objective manner.
Critical thinking can contribute to health by helping us to recognize and
assess the factors that influence attitudes and behavior, such as values,
peer pressure and the media.

7.  Creative thinking is a novel way of seeing or doing things that is characteristic
of four components –
fluency (generating new ideas),
flexibility (shifting perspective easily),
originality (conceiving of something new), and
elaboration (building on other ideas).
 Decision making helps us to deal constructively with decisions about our lives. It
can teach people how to actively make decisions about their actions in relation to
healthy assessment of different options and
what effects these different decisions are likely to have on their life.

8.  Problem solving helps us to deal constructively with problems in our lives.
Significant problems that are left unresolved can cause mental stress and give
rise to accompanying physical strain.
 Interpersonal relationship skills help us to relate in positive ways with the people
we interact with. This may mean being-
-Able to make and keep friendly relationships
-Keeping good relations with family members, which are an important source
of social support.
- It may also mean being able to end relationships constructively.

9. Effective communication means that we are able to express ourselves,
both verbally and non-verbally, in ways that are appropriate to our cultures
and situations.
This means being able to express opinions and desires, and also needs and fears.
 Coping with stress means recognizing the sources of stress in our lives,
recognizing how this affects us, and acting in ways that help us control our levels
of stress, by changing our environment or lifestyle and learning how to relax.
 Coping with emotions means involving recognizing emotions within us and others,
being aware of how emotions influence behavior and being able to respond to
emotions appropriately.
Intense emotions like anger or sadness can have negative effects on our health
if we do not respond appropriately.

10. NEED OF LIFE SKILL TRAINING
Life skills are essential for-
The promotion of healthy child and adolescent development.
Primary prevention of some key causes of child and adolescent death.
Disease and disability; socialization; preparing young people for changing
social circumstances.
Areas of primary prevention for which life skills are considered essential include:
Adolescent pregnancy, HIV/ AIDS, Violence, Child abuse, Suicide, Self-Injuries,
Problems related to the use of alcohol, tobacco and other psychoactive substances,
Accidents, Racism, Conflicts,& Environmental issues.
The main goal of the life skills approach is to enhance young people's ability to
take responsibility for making healthier choices, resisting negative pressures,
and avoiding risk behaviors.

11. Three broad areas of life skills
• Social skills include establishing good interpersonal relationships,
communicating effectively and empathy.
• Thinking/Reflecting skills include self-awareness, social awareness,
and goal setting and planning, problem solving and decision making,
creative and critical thinking.
• Negotiation skills with self and with others to resist peer or family pressure
which includes assertive and advocacy skills.

12. Teaching or Training
• Teaching methods are youth-centred, gender-sensitive, interactive, and
participatory. The most common teaching methods include working in groups,
brainstorming, role-playing, storytelling, debating, and participating in discussions
and audio visual activities.
• Practice of skills is facilitated by role-playing in typical scenarios, with a focus on
the application of skills and the effect that they have on the outcome.
• Other important methods used to facilitate life skills learning include group work,
discussion, debate, story-telling, peer-supported learning and practical community
development projects.

13. Life skills learning cannot be facilitated on the basis of information or discussion alone.
It is an active learning process which must also include experiential learning, i.e.
practical experience and reinforcement of the skills.
To be effective, life skills lessons should be designed to achieve clearly stated learning
objectives for each activity.
The development of life skills requires modelling of life skills by school and college staff
and a “safe”, supportive classroom environment that is conducive to the practice and
reinforcement of skills. Eg- non-smoking env.

14. Life skills learning is facilitated by the use of participatory learning methods and is based
on a social learning process which includes:
• Hearing an explanation of the skill in question
• Observation of the skill (modelling)
• Practice of the skill in selected situations in a supportive learning environment
• Feedback about individual performance of skills.

15. LIFE SKILLS APPLICATION
Increasing physical and mental health:
Strengthening self-confidence and self-respect.
The tools and methods to equip people to deal with environmental and
psychological pressure
To help strengthen and develop friendly, good and healthy relations
To promote healthy behavior and social benefit
Prevention of psychological behavioral and social problems, including the
prevention of:
Smoking and drug abuse
Emerging psychiatric disorders and social-psychological problems
Suicide in adolescents and young adults
Violent behaviors

16. TRAINING
IN
STUDY SKILLS

17. STUDY SKILLS
 Study Skills are the strategies used to improve the learning ability. It helps in
enhancing the potential of a person by improving his ability to read, write and
remember.
 Study Skills are essential to select and organize information when
overwhelmed with various information.
 Study Skills involve research and assimilation of information. It is used to make
research on a topic by gathering and organizing information.
 Study skills, therefore, are the set of strategies that are used to adequately
acquire and gain knowledge about a chosen topic or subject

18.  When we possess these skills or strategies, we are able to increase the
efficiency of learning.
 We are also able to increase the likelihood that what we are to be learning is
retained in our long term memory for future use.
ELEMENTS IN STUDY SKILLS ARE
 Organization
 Time Management
 Learning Styles
 Reading with a purpose
 Active participation in class
 Note-taking
 Meta cognition
 Twenty first century skills
 Stress Management Skills
 Effective Reading Skills

19. ORGANIZATION
• Write down assignments in an agenda book
• Devise a “To Do List” short intervals in the beginning
• Rewards after tasks are completed
• Use a calendar to chunk long term projects and unit tests.
TIME- MANAGEMENT
• Keep “To Do Lists” short- 15 minutes for each task and build stamina over time
• Do hardest assignments first
• Reward with a favourite activity after homework is completed
• Take a minute to reflect….. Were tasks completed during the time frame?

20. LEARNING STYLES
KINETIC LEARNER
• Team player with good motor skills
• Might need brief breaks between tasks
• Fair to good communication skills
• Works well in study groups
• Prefers projects to quizzes and tests
VISUAL LEARNER
• Gets the big picture but forgets the details
• Benefits from graphic organizers
• Visualizes stories and events
• Prefers to shorten language to remember content

21. AUDITORY LEARNERS
• Benefit from teacher’s lectures and group discussions
• Will often ask questions for clarification
• Prefer audio textbooks and novels
• Often repeats information to remember it
READING WITH A PURPOSE
• Preview assignment before reading:
• Look at pictures and captions maps, graphs and charts
• Read chapter titles and bold headings and vocabulary in bold print.
Try to determine big picture.
• Read the chapter.
• Summarize the main idea. It can be orally or in writing
• This is a skill that takes time and will not be achieved readily

22. ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN CLASS
• Be prepared; if there is no time to read the chapter, use the text-tools to find the
main idea.
• Have some questions to ask the teacher for clarification.
• Be ready to participate in the class discussion
• Show interest in the topic
META- COGNITION
• This is a fancy word for reflection
• Review the preparation strategies
• What part of the study skills process worked well?
• What parts still need work?
• How did test results improve as a result of increased effort?

23. NOTE TAKING
• Understanding of key concepts
• Retention of information
• Clarification of unclear topics
• First column for main idea.
• Record supporting details
• 1. record examples
• 2. write questions that need clarification
• 3.Write information that is repeated
• 4. Additional vocabulary not in the textbook

24. STRESS MANAGEMENT SKILLS
• Don't worry about the little things. Prioritize your activities and focus on the most
important ones.
• Exercise. It takes your mind off things that are bothering you.
• Take care of yourself. Eat properly and get enough sleep.
• Avoid alcohol. It does not reduce stress—it hides it.
EFFECTIVE READING SKILLS
SCAN:
Scan the chapter in the book. Look at the boldface terms, charts, graphs, headings &
subtitles, maps, photos & illustrations, summary, and review questions. Scanning provides
you with information in a short amount time. You get a quick view of the information and it
prepares you for what you are about to read.

25. READ:
When you read, have a purpose. This helps you to stay focused and understand what you
have read. Ask yourself questions as you read. “What does this word mean? Why is this
event important?
REVIEW:
Once you have finished reading, take the time to go one step further. Go through the
scanning process again and look at the bold words, italicized words, charts, pictures,
headings, etc. Make sure you understand what you have read.

26. TWENTY FIRST CENTURY SKILLS
• Critical Thinking- Problem Solving Skills
• Collaboration with Peers
• Creativity
• Technology- use of the internet (reliable sites)
1. Blogs
2. Twitter
3. Skype
4. On-line learning
• Life Skills
• Global Awareness

27. TRAINING FOR OVERALL
PERSONALITY
DEVELOPMENT.

28. PERSONALITY
• Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and
interacts with others.
• Personality is generally defined as the deeply ingrained and relatively
enduring patterns of thought, feeling and behavior.
• Personality refers to all what is unique about an individual, the
characteristics that makes one stand out in a crowd.
Personality determinants
• Heredity: Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at
conception. Physical structure, facial attractiveness, gender,
temperament etc.
• Environment: The environmental factors that exert pressures on our
personality formation are the culture in which we are raised, our early
conditioning, the norms among our family, friends and social groups, and
other influences that we experience.

29. Situation:
A third factor, the situation, influences the effects of heredity and environment on
personality.
An individual’s personality although generally stable and consistent, does change in
different situations. The varying demand of different situation calls forth different
aspects of one’s personality.
We should not therefore look upon personality patterns in isolation.

30. TRAITS ENHANCED BY COUNSELLORS FOR BUILDING POSITIVE
PERSONALITY ARE:
1. Accept Responsibility
2. Show consideration: Show consideration, courtesy, politeness and caring
3. Think Win-Win.
4. Choose your words carefully:
The principle is your speaking must be better than silent, rather be silent.
Words spoken out of bitterness can cause irreparable damage. The way the
parents speak to their children in many instances shapes their children’s destiny.
5.Never Criticize, Complain and Condemn.
6. Smile and Be Kind: Smile is the shortest distance between two people.
7. Be a Good Listener
8. Be Enthusiastic: Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm

31. 9.Put Positive interpretation on other people’s behavior:
We see the world not as it is, but as we are. So when we are interpreting other
people’s behavior negatively we just reflecting our own mentality to this situation. In
contrast when we interpret positively, chances are that other people may realize its
negativity and change or amend their ways.
10. Give honest and Sincere Appreciation:
The desire to feel important is one of the greatest cravings in most of the human
beings and it can be a great motivator.
Honest and sincere appreciation makes one feel important and promote these positive
qualities in him.
In contrast giving false and insincere appreciation is flattery or sycophancy which
in the long run is harmful to the recipient.

32. 11. When you make a mistake, accept it and make it easy to amend:
Mistakes are to be learned from.
12. Discuss but don’t argue: Arguing is like fighting a losing battle. Even if
one wins in the argument, the cost may be more than the worth of victory.
13. Don’t Gossip: Gossip may lead to slander and defamation of character.
People who listen to gossip are as guilty as those who do the gossiping.
14. Turn your promises into commitment: Commitment leads to enduring
relationship through thick and thin. It shows in a person’s personality and
relationship.
15. Be grateful but do not expect gratitude
16. Be dependable and practice loyalty: An ounce of loyalty is worth more than a
pound of cleverness. Ability without dependability is of no worth.
17. Avoid bearing grudges.
18. Practice honesty, Integrity and Sincerity: Lies may have speed, but the truth has
endurance.

33. 19. Practice Humility: Confidence without humility is arrogance. Sincere Humility is
the foundation of all virtues. It is a sign of greatness.
20. Be understanding and caring: The best way to be understood is to be
understanding. And the basis of real communication is also understanding.
21. Practice courtesy on daily basis
22. Develop a sense of humor: Have a sense of humor and you will possess the
ability to laugh at yourself. A sense of humor makes a person likeable and attractive.
Some people are humor-impaired.
23. Don’t be sarcastic and put others down.
24. To have a friend be a Friend: Mutual trust and confidence are the foundation
stones of all friendship
25. Show Empathy: Empathy alone is a very important characteristic of positive
personality. People with empathy ask themselves this question, “how would I feel if
someone treated me that way?”

34. Thus, Personality development is gaining more and more importance because it
enables people to create a good impression about themselves on others.
It helps them to build and develop relationships, helps in your career growth and
also helps to improve your financial needs.
Personality development is nothing but a tool that helps you realize your
capabilities and your strengths making you a stronger, a happier and a
cheerful person.