Pupils in Ipswich will be taught life skills such as cooking, gardening and bicycle maintenance under a new project.
The Department for Education has awarded £1.2million to Suffolk County Council, which is delivering 49 programmes across Ipswich schools.
The Essential Life Skills programme uses informal sessions to teach youngsters gardening, woodwork, cooking and bicycle maintenance among other things.
It comes as part of cash offered through the Ipswich Opportunity Area - a designation given to the town by central government with the aim of boosting attendance and attainment for youngsters across all its schools.
Conservative cabinet member for education, Gordon Jones, said: "This Essential Life Skills programme is already proving a great success.
"It is about halfway through delivery and schools are already seeing the positive impact on their students, whether it be their behaviour in the classroom has improved, their school attendance has improved, or their overall confidence has increased.
"The aim of the Essential Life Skills Programme is to equip students with skills which they can use in their everyday life take into adulthood and to give them a 'can do' attitude."
Alongside the main sessions, two providers are also running workshops for youngsters with poor attendance, to help inspire them in their learning.
The sessions use a mix practical, social and emotional skills, according to education chiefs, delivered through school trips, lunch and after school clubs.
An estimated 2,500 pupils will benefit from the scheme, which runs until the end of the summer term this year, with over 1,200 hours of teaching being given.
Labour education spokesman Jack Abbott said: "I absolutely welcome any additional investment into our education system, particularly given the huge financial pressures our schools are under after years of real-terms funding cuts.
"There are also signs the Ipswich Opportunity Area schools are working much more closely with each other and this can only be a good thing.
"However, a few questions remain. What does success look like and how will it be measured? How can we ensure this programme is coherent, effective and creates a deep-rooted, long-lasting legacy? Are individual schools best placed to commission or should this be delivered centrally by the children's services department?
"Crucially, it has to be young people themselves who develop and lead these strategies.
"If this is to work they must be front and centre - it is their voices that need to be heard."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here