Practical Guide to Teaching Life Skills in Adult Ed – Part I
✨ This is Part 1 of a 3-part series on teaching life skills in adult education. Catch the rest: Part 2 → How to Teach Life Skills in GED and ESL Classes | Part 3 → A List of Life Skills Every Adult Should Know
Why Teaching Life Skills Matters in Adult Education
A recent World Economic Forum survey revealed that about half of adults lack essential financial knowledge — including critical topics like borrowing, saving, understanding financial risks, and planning for retirement. Another survey of 1,000 Gen Z and Millennial adults found that 63% felt unprepared for common "adulting" tasks. Their biggest challenges? Finding a satisfying job, dealing with insurance, managing household responsibilities, doing taxes, and even basic day-to-day skills like changing a tire or sewing a button.
Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Adult learners face many of the same challenges our younger students do — with the added pressure of supporting a family, managing full-time work, or navigating systems in a second language. If you're teaching adult education, integrating life skills isn't just a nice extra. It's essential.
Survey of Millennial and Gen Z feelings about adulting
A Tale of Two Students
Let’s compare two very different student journeys.
For many traditional high school or college students, the transition to adulthood happens gradually. They might live with family or on-campus, and often benefit from financial support that lets them focus on school. That safety net allows for time spent in extracurriculars, tutoring, or just figuring things out — all of which contribute to higher graduation rates and career opportunities.
But adult learners? They're juggling jobs, caregiving, bills, and school — all at once. Many are financially independent and supporting children or other family members. Unsurprisingly, adult students have lower persistence and completion rates compared to their younger peers (Adult Learners in Higher Ed). They simply don’t have the same safety nets — which makes real-world, practical life skills training that much more critical.
Adult learners often juggle multiple roles and responsibilities
Let's Talk Terminology
In the K–12 world, these skills are often called "transition skills" or "postsecondary transition skills." Sometimes we call them "independent living skills," or just plain "life skills." But whatever we call them, the truth is: these aren’t just for students with IEPs or disabilities. All adults need support with things like learning how to manage money, find housing, prepare for a job, or access healthcare.
It’s Bigger Than Passing the GED
I’ll never forget the time a student brought me his first paper paycheck and quietly asked, "What do I do with this?" He didn’t have a bank account and was planning to cash the check at Wal-Mart — because that’s what he’d seen his family do. He had no idea how much he'd lose to fees, or that there were safer, cheaper options. That single interaction led me to create a whole section in my Bank Account Lesson on risky alternatives to banking — looking at the drawbacks of expensive services like check cashing fees, payday loans, and more.
Life skills for adults aren’t just about budgeting or job skills — they’re about creating real stability and confidence in everyday life.
Most adult learners sign up for programs to pass the GED, learn English, or prepare for college. But their real goals go deeper: they want financial security, independence, and stability. Life skills are the bridge between education and those real-life goals.
Underlying goals of adult learners
Take financial literacy, for example. Being able to budget, build credit, or understand your paycheck can dramatically increase someone’s chances of staying in school, keeping a job, and building a future. According to the NCHE, in 2020 nearly one-quarter of adults 25+ without a high school diploma were living in poverty — the highest of any educational group.
When we teach budgeting, job search strategies, or how to read a lease, we're not just helping them pass a test. We're giving our students tools to break cycles of poverty and build confidence for the road ahead.
Coming up in Part 2: How to teach life skills inside your GED or ESL curriculum — with practical examples for every subject.
✅ In the meantime, grab this free Reading and Signing a Lease activity to introduce life skills in a low-stress, high-impact way.
