One in five young people struggles with mental health issues. Only 45% of pupils in education are intrinsically motivated to learn new things. And functional illiteracy costs our country an estimated 2% of GDP. In a new report, the Itinera think tank introduces the concept of ‘understanding life’ as a solution. “Young people today are not taught how to manage money, their health or their emotions, even though it is precisely these skills that determine how someone copes in life,” says Johan Albrecht of the Itinera think tank. “Even our best pupils leave school without understanding how society really works.”

The gap between what we can do and what we need

In Flanders, 18% of adults are functionally illiterate, 17% have low numeracy skills and 21% have low digital skills. This limited literacy is directly linked to higher levels of poverty, poorer health and reduced employment prospects. Among those of working age with low numeracy skills, 66% are in employment, compared to 94% of those with high numeracy skills. However, OECD figures show that a third of workers in Western countries are in jobs that do not match their qualifications.

In a new report, the Itinera think tank argues that there is a gap between what people are capable of and what society demands of them. “Our education curriculum is built around qualifications and a focus on diplomas, instead of the skills that young people really need in their future lives,” says Itinera fellow Johan Albrecht. “Young people leave our education system without knowing how to fill a tax return, read a rental agreement or deal with mental health issues. We measure the results of our education against PISA rankings, but in the meantime we forget the core of what matters: preparing young people for life.”

Understanding life

With ‘understanding life’, the Itinera report offers a solution to this problem. Not as a separate topic, but as a learning pathway from primary school through to the end of secondary education. The learning pathway focuses on six areas: health literacy, emotional management, critical thinking, financial literacy, citizenship and digital resilience.

The inspiration comes from Singapore, where the education system connects skills, lifelong learning and healthcare through the so-called ‘SkillsFuture programme’. With an expected 74 healthy life years, the country is 11 years ahead of Belgium.

Concrete policy recommendations

The Itinera report sets out four concrete policy recommendations to get back to fundamentals: preparing young people for life and helping people tackle the problems they face in their lives.

1. Develop a national skills intelligence system based on the PIAAC methodology, expanded to include health literacy and social-emotional competences.
2. Implement ‘life skills’ in education, starting with pilot projects in various types of schools and regions.
3. Create flexible learning pathways for adults with low literacy skills via GPs, local social services (OCMWs/CPAS) and the VDAB/FOREM/Actiris.
4. Strengthen cooperation between education, work, welfare and care, across fragmented responsibilities.

“This is not a call to scrap maths or science as areas of knowledge in our education system,” says Johan Albrecht. “But a new balance is needed. Knowledge transfer remains essential, but alongside this, every pupil must also learn how to pay a bill, understand their health and cope with setbacks. These two ambitions are not mutually exclusive; they reinforce one another.”