On the QT: Soft Skills

Put yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager. Take this survey.

Did you know? No matter how smart they are, or how many degrees they earn, students need a solid set of soft skills in order to be successful <Link> . Soft skills refer to a person's ability to relate to others, to get him- or herself (and possibly others) organized, to communicate in written, spoken or other forms, to conduct research or gather information about various topics as assigned, and so forth. While students need specific technical or hard skills to get those good jobs, soft skills are essential for workplace success. In fact, studies suggest that hard skills contribute to only 15% of a person's workplace success while the remaining 85% relies on good soft skills <Link> . Unfortunately more than a third of employers say new graduates lack many of the soft skills they seek. Give your students an edge over the competiti on by helping them define and develop their soft skills.

Try This
Ask students to help you define soft and hard skills. (Defined <Link>  on slides 2, 3, 4, 5)
Distribute Would You Hire You? attached.
Have students form groups of 3-5 and work together to fill-in the missing definitions and examples.
Call on different groups to share some of their responses especially focusing on their workplace examples.
Give students a couple of minutes to explain to the person sitting next to them why they would hire themselves based on their soft skills.
For more information and a soft skills quiz, assign Soft Skills Employers Seek <Link> , an online student lesson.

Add an Experience
A guest speaker from a local business can convey current, realistic information and a perspective on the workplace that is not available from textbooks. Consider inviting the Human Resource Manager from a local business to meet with your class. Ask him/her to discuss the skills that make a job candidate exceptional and give students an opportunity to ask questions. While getting effective guest speakers can be challenging, if you prepare <Link>  your students and the speaker well in advance, the outcome will be amazing. For additional information, check out Handy Activities for Student Success <Download PDF > , pg. 12-13.

Quik Quote: You can have all the technical expertise in the world, but if you can't sell your ideas, get along with others, or turn your work in on time, you'll be going nowhere fast <Link> .
Peggy Klaus, The Hard Truth about Soft Skills