10 Life Skills to Learn From College Before Graduating

Whether you are in your first year, final year, or in between, you are about to see some life skills you need to learn from college before graduating. These life skills will improve your professional value, and employability after school, and boost your contribution to yourself and the world around you.

Everyone goes to school with the primary aim of getting a degree but over the years, experts and employers have emphasized that soft skills are more important in improving a graduate’s employability than being without them. This is in keeping with a study that showed that 86% of respondents/companies indicate an increasing emphasis on soft skills over the last decade.^[1]Soft skills to enhance graduate employability: comparing students and employers’ perceptions: Studies in Higher Education – Taylor and Francis Online)

Learning unique soft skills, in addition to technical skills and knowledge from your college education, can give you an edge in the job market. Another study done by Kyllonen showed that soft skills increased the chance for better employment and success in the workplace and that soft skills deployment is 80% higher than merely cognitive-based or hard skills.^[2]Kyllonen, P. C. (2013). Soft skills for the workplace. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 45(6), 16– 23. doi:10.1080/00091383.2013.841516

Being in School is a Great Time to Build Key Competencies

Key competencies refer to a set of essential skills, abilities, and attitudes that individuals need to effectively perform tasks, solve problems, and adapt to various situations in both personal and professional settings, that can be applied to a range of disciplines and contexts.

Being in College is a great time to build key competencies due to several factors. College students have access to structured environments that intentionally foster the development of cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, and socio-emotional competencies. The diverse and immersive environment of college allows students to develop, build, and refine core competencies, amongst other reasons.^[3]Levine, E. & Patrick, S. (2019). What is competency-based education? An updated definition. Vienna, VA: Aurora Institute

Being in College affords you enough time for safe experimentation while developing you for the world out there while providing you with access to educational resources, and an excellent networking opportunity. Thus, while the primary goal remains to obtain a university degree, it would be considered anomalous if a student passes through school without thinking about tapping into everything the school has to offer.

Life Skills You Must Learn From College

Some time ago, I was invited to give an online talk to some third and fourth-year University students about balancing emotional affairs with studies and career development. It seemed like a complex topic but through my experience through the University, I shared some insights on some specific life skills every student must acquire before graduating.

Here, we will explore some life skills to learn from college before you graduate.

1. Learning How to Learn

One of the most essential life skills to have is the skill of learning new skills. It may sound simple but many people do not commit to a culture of learning new things. They are either too scared to start or too impatient to go through the learning process.

While school curricula are often structured in a way that teaches students the systematic ways of learning, many students fail to understand how to apply that ability to real-life scenarios outside the four walls of the university.

Learning requires patience, understanding of basic concepts, consistency, and constant practice. People who think they can’t learn something new because it is too difficult will also find it hard to adapt to a new work environment after school.

2. Critical Thinking

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has identified 8 key competencies for new college graduates to ensure successful entrance into the workforce. It emphasizes the student’s ability to identify and respond to needs based on an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information.^[4]Skills Employers Are Looking For (NACE Career Competencies) – Business Career Center | Smeal College of Business

Critical thinking involves making logical reasoning on a situation with the aim of finding out the unique approach to handling that situation. It allows you to evaluate conditions in an unbiased way while drawing useful inferences specific to the given situation.

Critical thinking is a component of learning how to learn as discussed above, because it gives you a systematic way to approach problems and find solutions to them. Thus, making it an invaluable skill to learn in college before you graduate.

3. Networking Skills

College is a perfect opportunity to start building your professional network. The people you meet daily can provide valuable connections and advice for you now or in the future.

Networking skill is a key competency that enhances your ability to get help from people, bearing in mind that people will always remain valuable assets in your professional growth and development after school. Whether it is your professors, mentors, supervisors, classmates, or alumni, opening yourself to networking can bring you great opportunities you could never get otherwise.

Also, your network can offer you advice, and job opportunities, and provide you a base to find people for partnerships and project collaboration now and in the future.

4. Communication Skills

The NACE listed communication skills among the core competencies important in entering the workforce. Communication refers to the process of effectively exchanging information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with other people.

Whether it is engaging with colleagues on a common project or activity, or in classroom presentations, developing your communication skills is crucial for building strong personal and professional relationships even after school.

Active listening is also an important component of communication. Being able to articulate ideas clearly requires you to understand the perspectives of other people, and find the best way to make them understand what you are trying to say.

Communication skills enhance group collaboration, teamwork, leadership, and conflict resolution, which are all important in professional, personal, entrepreneurial, and romantic relationships.

5. Entrepreneurship

Irrespective of your course of study, it is not too early to realize that all human activities are based on the simple principle of buying and selling. Come to think of it; is there anything or any aspect of human lives that does not involve buying and selling?

Entrepreneurship is one’s ability to spot or create opportunities to offer value to people for money. It could be in the form of goods/products, or services. And while you should not neglect your responsibility of reading to acquire knowledge for your exams, it is also crucial to prepare yourself for entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurial skills involve developing a mindset of creative problem-solving, risk-taking, and adaptability, all of which are important traits for success in today’s fast-changing world.

Being in school gives you a great opportunity to develop and experiment with your entrepreneurial skills. Think of a product or service that can meet a need and sell it to your peers and other students within the university environment. It might not be easy to practically demonstrate entrepreneurship while in school but there is a lot you’d learn if you start as early as possible.

6. Financial Literacy

While managing your finances in school may not be a very easy experience, it can help you get more accountable and prevent running out of money before payday. Financial literacy involves understanding how to control your spending, save, and implement a budget to be able to meet your most priority needs and avoid running out of funds.

College is the perfect time to learn budgeting, saving, and investing. Understanding how to manage your money will help you achieve financial independence and make smarter financial decisions in the future.

Financial literacy and accountability are also important in becoming successful in entrepreneurship, and overall success in life.

7. Emotional Management Skills

As holistic humans, we have an emotional component that cannot be separated from other aspects of our lives. As long as you interact with other people who have emotions, there will always be time to build your emotional management skills.

This includes managing your own emotions towards others, as well as behaving in ways that prevent others from flaring up or getting depressed in their emotions.

Emotional skills will be important from both personal and professional perspectives. For example, displaying emotional maturity with your spouse is a valuable skill you can’t afford to ignore, even if you are not planning to get married within the next few years.

Through constant interactions with people and learning about common things that trigger or palliate their emotions, you can better understand how to control both your own and other people’s emotions. This is key in sustaining both romantic and non-romantic relationships in your personal life.

8. Teamwork

Amongst some other key competencies mentioned earlier, the NACE also highlighted teamwork as an important skill to develop before entering the workforce. It was defined as the act of building and maintaining collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities.^[5]Ibid., NACE Career Competencies – Business Career Center | Smeal College of Business

Teamwork involves exploiting personal strengths and knowledge and complementing those of others. It is borne out of the desire to work together to achieve common goals as a team, seeing successes as a result of a collective effort.

You should intentionally learn to think of ways your group can get more productive or successful in meeting collective goals. Teamwork is also an important professional skill that can make you stand out from most other people during the employment process.

9. Leadership Skills

Learning leadership is going to be useful in virtually all areas of your life, from interaction with people, and your future family. Developing leadership skills will help you succeed in your professional life as well.

The University presents you with an opportunity to acquire and build your leadership skills. Engage in class leadership, and take positions in associations, student politics, religious groups, and sociocultural groups. These are avenues for you to develop yourself to become an exceptional leader.

Developing leadership skills requires you to go ahead of your team and assign responsibilities to yourself for the common good of the group. Leadership is in recognizing and capitalizing on personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals, as well as serving as a beacon of motivation and inspiration to others.

10. Time Management

School puts you in a position to learn time management but not everyone comes out knowing how to set priorities and manage time. You are bombarded with different things at the same time, including class assignments, social life, and sporting and religious activities you are involved in, while still expected to have time for everything.

At some point, you may need to include other activities like business or going into a romantic relationship, but that is the reality of life outside school. You just have to use the opportunity of being in college to train yourself for what lies ahead.

Learning to balance your time effectively is essential to your success for the rest of your life. You need to be able to set priorities on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, communicate responsibilities, manage deadlines, and efficiently manage your workload to achieve optimal efficiency in everything.

Other Things To Learn From School

There are many other things and skills you can learn from college that will impact how you live your life and relate with other people after school.

1. Social Tolerance

In school, you meet and work with different types of people who have different ideologies and beliefs from you. But it is a great avenue to learn social tolerance which can affect your capacity for teamwork and peaceful co-existence.

As long we are social beings, social tolerance is one essential thing needed for working with other people peacefully. Social intolerance will make people uncomfortable working with you and might make people directly or indirectly attack you.

Social tolerance and accommodation are essential for personal, professional, and romantic relationships.

2. Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the skill required for handling conflicts and making mutually beneficial negotiations between two conflicting parties. This is a skill you should strive to learn while you are still in school.

While diplomacy skills are under-emphasized in many climes, it is a highly needed skill in a world where there is so much strife, disagreement, and intolerance. We often get people who make matters worse when trying to settle a dispute. Hence, learning and practicing diplomacy will place you in a position to make a positive contribution to your family and the world at large.

3. Research Skills

Research is a highly sought-after skill worldwide because it holds the key to discovering new information and methods that work only based on assumptions. It places confirmation on opinions by testing hypotheses and using statistically verifiable data.

The college incorporates research skills into its curriculum, and irrespective of your field of study, it will help if you get committed to understanding the basics of research and how to use statistical tools in testing data.

4. Tech and Soft Skills

In a world with ever-sophisticated technology, you have to be tech-oriented. Now more than ever, technological skills are becoming important criteria for securing gainful employment. Also, you don’t want to get left behind by the rest of the world in this technology revolution.

Pick up a tech skill like programming, software development, AI, data analysis, or any other. You also want to pursue other soft skills like writing, digital arts, graphics, etc.

Acquiring Life Skills After School

Life is a never-ending learning process, and while these unique skills and abilities are better learned in school where you have so many opportunities with relatively fewer responsibilities, you can learn anything at any point.

Whether you are already a graduate or about to, there is still enough time to learn new skills and pursue self-development. You just need to have the mindset of continuous development, and a willingness to learn.

Final Words

Having seen these unique skills to learn from college before graduating, it is important to emphasize one last component that binds everything together, and that is multitasking and creating balance. Life is about creating balance. There might not be enough time for everything you desire to learn but you have to create the time to achieve your goals.

Your school might not penalize you for not acquiring some of those skills discussed here but life will penalize you if you don’t develop yourself optimally. Hence, you must learn to strike a balance between your academics and learning other life skills even while in school.

Lastly, committing to developing yourself in school will teach you the importance of patience, passion, and determination in your life as a holistic human.