We asked students what skills they wish they were learning or had learnt at school, and these were their top answers.
Life can be difficult to navigate, and students don’t always graduate school having learnt everything they need to know.
Soft skills are those that typically help people connect, communicate and perform in their day-to-day lives—like how to manage money, build resilience, or land that first job.
But these often get lost in favour of homework or exams.
We asked students what skills they wish they were learning or had learnt at school, and these were their top answers.
Money Skills
From budgeting to banking, more than half of students surveyed chose money as a core focus and ranked it in their top five priorities.
Ten per cent said specifically that money was the top skill they wished they’d mastered at school, showing that the stress of inflation and the rising cost of living still heavily impacts the younger generation.
Lack of Motivation
Young people are really struggling with the motivation they need to get their work done with 25 per cent of the young people surveyed putting procrastination as one of their biggest issues.
To try and gain a better understanding of how students deal with procrastination, Youth Insight recently partnered with Studiosity to put a report together which you’ll be able to check out soon.
Study and Workplace Skills
At number three is study and workplace skills like productivity, organisation and time management.
A third of students chose interview confidence as something they’d like to nurture further, 28 per cent said the same for communication skills and another 25 per cent would like to improve their networking skills.
Finding Purpose and Passion
Coming in fourth place were skills related to finding purpose with students keen to discover their passions and career direction.
More than 40 per cent of students chose having greater clarity as to their path after high school as their top soft skill priority.
Wellbeing & Mental Health and Investing & Superannuation
Tied for fifth place was wellbeing and mental health skills, and investing and superannuation skills, both of which grew in importance with age.
While only 5 per cent of 15-18 year olds ranked wellbeing and mental health as important to them, more than double (11 per cent) of those aged 22-25 prioritised it.
Similarly, interest in superannuation and investing ranked higher among 22-25 year olds (9 per cent) compared to 15-18 year olds (2 per cent).
It was for this exact reason that we started Student Edge Plus—to support students through the school journey after listening to what they needed and getting feedback from parents, teachers and employers.
They told us what they wanted to learn (like taxes, study tips and finance), and employers told us the key skills they wanted young people to know (like leadership, communication and budgeting), and we created a premium membership that champions on-demand life skills learning taught by industry experts around Australia.
It’s pretty cool. But don’t just take our word for it. Head to our website and check it out for yourself.
Or, for more unique youth insights, check out our Gen Z reports. Or, to submit a question for our next quarterly Gen Z survey, get in touch at support@youthinsight.com.au.