Five misconceptions about soft skills by Diane Shawe M.Ed

FIVE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT SOFT SKILLS

BY DIANE SHAWE M.ED The importance of transferrable skills. There can be no doubt about the importance of a degree and a solid academic background but it’s not the only thing that employers will be interested in. Especially where there is strong competition for entry to a job, employers have to find a way to choose.

FIVE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT SOFT SKILLS

BY DIANE SHAWE M.ED MISCONCEPTION ONE. ONE OF THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MAN OF THESE “SOFT SKILLS” IS THAT STUDENTS CAN LEARN THEM ONCE AND HAVE THEM AT THEIR DISPOSAL FOREVER.

However, all of these interpersonal, intellectual, and communication skills are learned through practice over time. Thinking, analytical, and writing skills communication instruction need to be learnt and practiced because students learn many of the other “soft skills” this way.

MISCONCEPTION TWO. THAT STUDENTS BY DEFAULT SHOULD KNOW HOW TO WRITE FOR THE WORK PLACE BECAUSE THEY HAVE LEARNED TO WRITE IN SCHOOL

In fact, most of the writing instruction in universities is geared toward teaching students to write in academic environments.

Academic writing is not the same as professional writing.

The skills one learns by writing academic papers do not necessarily transfer to the ability to write workplace documents. Issues of purpose, audience, context, politics, diversity, and ethics change significantly from academia to the workplace. Students often enter the workplace without any significant sense of the communication, interpersonal, and intellectual demands of this new environment.

We are building the “bridge” with professional writing courses that will help students learn to transfer their academic skills into workplace skills.

TESTS THAT MIS-MEASURE SOFT SKILLS Soft skills complement hard skills (part of a person’s IQ), which are the occupational requirements of a job and many other activities.

So why does contemporary society place great value on standardised achievement tests to sift and sort people, to evaluate schools, and to assess the performance of nations?

Despite the widespread use of standardised achievement tests, the traits that they measure are not well-understood.

Cognitive ability like IQ the important skills that achievement tests miss or mis measure, are now being recognised as the skills that also matter in life.

Achievement tests miss, or more accurately, do not adequately capture, soft skills— personality traits, goals, motivations, and preferences that are valued in the labour market, in school, and in many other domains.

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MEASURING DIFFERENT SKILLS MATTER The larger message is that soft skills predict success in life that they produce that success, and that programs that enhance soft skills have an important place in an effective portfolio of public policies.

Measurement of cognition and educational attainment has been refined during the past century. Psychometricians have shown that cognitive ability has multiple facets.

Many social scientists— even many psychologists— continue to use IQ tests, standardised achievement tests, and grades.

Even though scores on IQ tests, standardised achievement tests, and grades are positively correlated with each other, recent literature shows that they measure different skills and depend on different facets of cognitive ability.

MISCONCEPTION THREE.

Is that these “soft skills” are defined the same from culture to culture In fact, the influx of international students and the lack of knowledge of cultural differences compounds the difficulty of students learning all these “soft skills.” For example, the ways in which other cultures exhibit and interpret “soft skills” is much different than our Western culture’s definitions of effective teamwork, leadership, communication, decisionmaking, etc.

MISCONCEPTION FOUR.

IS THAT IF SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS SOMETHING INTELLECTUALLY THROUGH READING, DISCUSSING, AND TESTING, THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO APPLY THAT UNDERSTANDING TO THEIR OWN BEHAVIOR Learning about playing the violin does not teach one to be a violinist.

Additionally, the manner in which students are taught may be antithetical to learning these “soft skills.” Many of these skills are most easily learned and practiced in active learning environments that blend both individual and team responsibilities and assignments. However, the vast majority of teaching still occurs through lecturing (passive learning) where students have little to no opportunities to practice these “soft skills.”

MISCONCEPTION FOUR. STUDENTS BELIEVE THAT TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL IN ONE’S CAREER, THEY NEED ONLY LEARN THE TECHNIQUES, STRATEGIES, ETC. OF THEIR TECHNICAL COURSE.

They do not understand that these “soft skills” often are what make the difference between being hired, being promoted, and being successful in any profession. Therefore, they tend to avoid (unless required) courses in the personal development and interpersonal sector. Reading literature, studying philosophy, understanding history, and exploring different views are all opportunities to develop critical thinking, ethics, cultural understanding, etc.

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CONCLUSION

THE LIFE

Once upon a time we all thought we could get a job for life or always be in work. Every entrepreneur thinks that his/her product, services will change the world.

CYCLE OF

Soft skills alone won’t make you successful either. They have to be balanced with having the management and entrepreneurial skills with right hard/professional skills, to compete in this market place. Investing in yourself means ‘you’ become the ‘human capital’ and you will begins to reap positive and sustainable dividends because you have become an asset.

There is no tape measure for perseverance, no caliper for intelligence.

There are now Internet based soft skills training courses that allow you to work with simulations, what-if scenarios and adventure games to learn soft skills. Of course face to face training could be more effective if you can find trainers who can customise their courses to suit your needs and more importantly having the evidence that you have attained a transferable skill upon the presentation of an accredited certificate. Finally, focus on long term development approach for developing soft skills rather than event based approach will add long term value.

What most people, employers, entrepreneurs and even some educational institutions do not have in today’s current environment is time the necessary resources and the infrastructure they need to support and achieve their learning objectives. Both our online and workshop based courses are a cost effective way to deliver and up-skill a wide cross section of our society. Designed to be student (user) centric and time sensitive.

AVPT is the only UK Globally Accredited online and workshop based provider of over 390 Soft Skills courses using a cutting edge, proprietary online Learning Management system all supported by a Virtual Tutor Facilitor. We also deliver via fast track workshops designed to up-skill you in 1, 2 or 3 days.

SOFT SKILLS

All cognitive and personality traits are measured using performance on “tasks,” broadly defined. Different tasks require different traits in different combinations. Some distinguish between measurements of traits and measurements of outcomes, but this distinction is often misleading.

However, traits are not set in stone. They change over the life cycle and can be enhanced by education, parenting, and environment to different degrees at different ages.

It is my opinion people try harder when doing achievement tests so you can scores and capture both cognitive and personality traits.

Visit our website and tell us what information you would like us to send you. www.expresstrainingcourses.co.uk or call 0203 551 2621.

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