by Dr BMK Perera Director/Career Guidance Unit University of Peradeniya Soft skills are also referred to as • • • • • Employability skills Key skills Core skills Interpersonal skills Transferable skills Fallows, 2002 Soft skills defined … • Skills, abilities and traits that pertain to personality, attitude and behavior Moss and Tilly, 1996 Soft skills: The two domains Examples of Interpersonal (interactive) soft skills … • Team work • Relationship-building • Adaptability • Written and oral communication • Friendliness • Attire • Grooming Examples of Intrapersonal (motivational) soft skills • • • • • • • • • • Planning/ organizing Taking initiative Problem solving Showing enthusiasm Stress tolerance Dependability Creative thinking and innovation Time management Willingness to learn Coachability Importance • Employers criticize university output as having their heads full of theories, concepts and principles but graduates are often ill-equipped to deal with real life situations • ‘Soft skills are a lot harder to teach in the world of work‘ Wall Street Journal Article, 2002 Importance (continued) • Companies are going global, and often, technical experts are called upon to do a variety of non-technical tasks requiring soft skills • Currently, people management skills are placed higher than strategic management skills and process management • Source: BMW Presentation made at University of Rhode Island, 2002 Effective_engineer Predictors of success in the world of work IQ Predicts < 30% of a person’s success Predicts >70% of a person’s success EQ Soft skills domain AQ Relates to resilience Targeting soft skills • Inclusion of career guidance in academic program • Outward bound training (Experiential learning) • Debates/ public speaking competitions/ Toastmasters Club • Strengthening of student societies • Competitions for projects displaying innovative thinking and team work • Mentoring programs within and outside the system (limited numbers) Targeting soft skills in academic programs • Lectures/ workshops on campus • • • • • • • • Time management Stress management Conflict resolution/ negotiation/ mediation Effective presentations Assertive behavior Understanding teamwork Covey’s 7 habits of effective people CV writing and interview facing (in the last year) Embedded model Highest level of integration Integrated model Skills taught within a given discipline, specialty or faculty Learning Centre model Centralized support service providing generic skills, operating outside curriculum/ Can offer ‘Bolted on’ courses Osmosis model (Expect students to acquire soft skills while following their academic programs Targeting soft skills in Outward bound Training • Popular with the corporate sector • Historically used for training survival skills to seamen in 1941 • • • • • Highly participative Interactive Simulates real life situations Adaptable to needs of the learner Excellent for changing attitudes and developing team spirit Targeting soft skills in Outward bound Training • MIT, Sloan Center, Sloan School for Management example • Provided by outside organization (off the campus) • Used to build camaraderie • Students set personal goals • Decide on extracurricular activities to engage in • Develop academic operating norms for the semester (Develop a team charter) • A lot of physical activities Way to develop the proposal… Intervention 1 Intervention 2 First, select a set of soft skills to target Intervention 3 Equifinality -Identify concrete needs for university or faculty Determine possible overlaps -Augment teaching with programs where needed Soft skill 1 First, select an activity/ intervention Soft skill 2 Soft skill 3 Irrespective of the approach there is a need to look at; • Cost, time and feasibility issues • Degree of change possible • Relevance to the university Workshops for Student Society Leaders