Helping Adults Gain Complementary Skills

The VPI Student

As a VPI instructor, you have probably sat many times with students and shook your head in disbelief at some of the things they did or didn't do.  You probably asked yourself, "Doesn't anyone have any common sense today?"  Sadly, there are many students who walk through your doors who do not have complementary or common sense skills.  Many times these students come from families who "acted without thinking" or too often spent most of their time reacting to crises, rather than organizing and planning to avoid them.

As a VPI instructor, you are a source of information for many of your students.  The things that you take for granted are often totally unknowns for your students.  Helping students gain complementary skills is similar to putting icing on a cake.  The cake may be pretty good without the icing, but it becomes something much more special when the icing is added. Through the VPI lab, students gain the basic academic skills they need to perform their jobs.  Through vocational/technical training, they gain the technical skills required of the job.  Through complementary skills, they learn how to function more effectively as an individual, as a member of a family unit, in the community and on the job.  Complementary skills can give students the edge when they interview for that job.  Complementary skills can help even more as the student seeks to retain employment over the long haul.

Individualizing Instruction

Not every student will need information on each and every complementary skill.  Some students may be quite proficient in one area, while lacking the most basic information in another.  You will have to assess where your students are in relation to complementary skills.  This will enable you to design a program that provides the assistance they need without spending time in areas that are really just fine.