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Widening the high school curriculum to include soft skill training: impacts on health, behaviour, emotional wellbeing and occupational aspirations

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  • Grace Lordan
  • Alistair McGuire

Abstract

From 2020 the health and relationships aspects of Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education will be compulsory in UK schools for adolescents. However less is known about how it can be taught in an effective manner. We examine, through a randomised trial, the impact of an evidenced based health related quality of life (HRQoL) curriculum called Healthy Minds that ran in 34 high schools in England over a four-year period. We find robust evidence that Healthy Minds positively augments many physical health domains of treated adolescents. We also find some evidence that Healthy Minds positively affects behaviour, but has no significant impact on emotional wellbeing. We find notable gender effects, strongly favouring boys. We also present evidence that Healthy Minds changes career aspirations, with those exposed to treatment being less likely to choose competitive work and more likely to choose work that involves "people-skills". Overall our work illustrates the potential for later childhood interventions to promote HRQoL and develop the career aspirations of adolescents.

Suggested Citation

  • Grace Lordan & Alistair McGuire, 2019. "Widening the high school curriculum to include soft skill training: impacts on health, behaviour, emotional wellbeing and occupational aspirations," CEP Discussion Papers dp1630, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1630
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    Cited by:

    1. Josten, Cecily & Lordan, Grace, 2022. "Automation and the Changing Nature of Work," IZA Discussion Papers 15180, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Weller, Jürgen, 2022. "Tendencias mundiales, pandemia de COVID-19 y desafíos de la inclusión laboral en América Latina y el Caribe," Documentos de Proyectos 48610, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    3. Lordan, Grace & Josten, Cecily, 2021. "The accelerated value of social skills in knowledge work and the COVID-19 pandemic," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113364, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    soft skills; health related quality of life; character; high school curriculum; personal; social; health and economic education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

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