Abstract
Residential child and youth care centres typically provide programmes to develop the social
and life skills of the children in care, on the assumption that these skills will equip them for
adult life. However, there is little research to show whether and how these skills are transferred
from the child care setting to young adulthood. This qualitative study investigates how a sample
of male care-leavers from Girls and Boys Town South Africa transferred these social skills into
independent living. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten young
men who had left care 2-5 years previously. Content analysis of the data was conducted.
Findings indicate that participants could recall the skills they had learned in care and reflect on
how they have applied these skills in their adult lives. In many cases, skills that were lost or
abandoned were later recovered during times of crisis; and many participants adapted the skills
to be more applicable in their adult world contexts. Teaching social and life skills, using
rigorous and structured methods, appears to be a useful intervention with long-term benefits to
young people after leaving care. However, the flexible and context-specific use of these skills
should also be emphasised.