Successful use of financial services and solidarity with other group members can give clients new confidence and a desire to learn and change. The Lifeskills Training Series education modules and Learning Conversations help implementing organizations to respond to the learning readiness of their clients and encourage a process of behavior change.¹

On the Road to Behavior Change

Behavior change begins with becoming aware of a problem, analyzing it, obtaining information about it, and acquiring the skills to overcome it. In the next stage, it involves attempting a new skill or practice, adopting the new practice, and finally celebrating success. 

With the Lifeskills Training Series, field staff of implementing organizations are able to support poor clients on the road to behavior change through 20- to 30-minute learning sessions or Learning Conversations.  These are facilitated at the same weekly, biweekly or monthly meetings set for handling financial services with clients.  Specifically, field staff members

• introduce topics;

• help clients understand the relevance of the issues in their lives;

• offer basic information about practical changes they can make;

• encourage any clients who have mastered these changes to share their successful experiences; and

• promote solidarity to help others persist in their efforts to change.

To read a sample learning session from an education module, follow this link.

To read a sample Learning Conversation, follow this link.

Because learning sessions and Learning Conversations employ adult learning principles and practices, particularly story, role-play, picture, song, game and small-group discussion, they are highly effective with poor clients who often have had little or no schooling and cannot read or write.  It should also be noted that field staff need not be highly educated either.²  Their role is facilitator—not teacher or technical expert.  For this reason, training for field staff focuses on techniques for presenting recommended practices and facilitation skills for drawing clients into learning from each other.

To learn more about our education modules and Learning Conversations—including their features and available topics—follow the links.

¹  While the Series is designed for integration with financial services by implementing organizations, the curricula can be adapted and used on its own by any organization that meets with groups of the poor on a regular basis. 
²  In the case of education modules, which introduce focused technical content, field staff are active facilitators and must have at least some secondary education.  In the case of Learning Conversations, which rely on latent knowledge and experience of the group, field staff may have less education.  Furthermore, field staff may choose to play the role of Learning Conversation facilitator or observer as group members themselves facilitate the conversation.