If you want to help people improve their quality of life and you are a skilled educator, you may want to become a life skills teacher. Life skills teachers, also referred to as life skills coaches, play an important role in self-enrichment education by helping their clients develop basic life skills that they will carry with them as they live a more independent life in the years to come. Unfortunately, you cannot just let your natural ability to teach shine through when you want to pursue a career in instruction. In order to work as a life coach, many states require that you have a specific credential or license. Read on, and find out about the steps that you must take to help various populations develop and progress in life.
Get a Formal Education
The best way to start pursuing your career in enrichment education is to get an education yourself. You may be equipped with the skills you need to navigate your own life, but it takes special skills and knowledge to understand learning styles and how to adapt your teaching methods to these styles.
By enrolling yourself into a special education degree program or a professional life skills professional development program, you can learn how to effectively coach individuals and adapt in the presence of groups. Be sure to compare the lessons available as they pertain to life skills. Decide how long you want to attend school and then you can decide if a certificate or a degree is best to suit your needs and accomplish your career goals. Undergraduate degree programs last between two and four years and certificate programs last three to six months before they are focused entirely on life skills coaching and training.
Become a Certified Professional
Once you complete your formal training program, the next step will be to earn your professional certification. The National Career Certification Board and also the International Coach Federation offer individual credentialing so that you can show that you are ready to take on a life skills teaching role. Make sure that you decide which type of life skills or coaching credential will offer you the biggest push in the field and be sure that you plan around the credentialing requirements as you get experience and enroll in training.
Decide Where to Work
To qualify for employment you need to first learn about different criteria in various settings. You can teach life skills to young primary-aged students or even to adults. Some instructors specialize in teaching skills to students with autism and others specialize in teaching inmates who are being released from custody how to deal with their new-found independence. If you are working in public schooling, you will need a teaching credential and a special education degree, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If you do not want to work in an academic setting, licensing may not be a requirement to worry about.
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What you will teach your students depends entirely on the demographic. You may focus your lessons on money management and job seeking or on food preparation and basic hygiene. You will need to decide what type of group you would like to work with and what setting you are most comfortable in. Only after deciding this will you be able to map out the path you must take to become a life skills teacher.
