ARE 21 CENTURY SKILLS (Soft Skills) REALLY NECESSARY?
If we want our graduates to be flexible, determined, curious, responsible, and innovative, we need to explicitly teach them how to develop these skills.
MindSage provides your students access to cutting edge, soft skills training before entering college.
“Soft skills are the reason why women such as Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, have soared to the very top, overtaking her Harvard contemporaries.”
-Sheryl Sandberg’s earlier
boss, Lant Pritchett.t.
INVESTING IN THE
FUTURE WORKFORCE
Is the $70 billion spent on corporate soft skills training addressing the cause? Or just addressing the symptom?
ARE OUR STUDENTS PREPARED?
WHAT IS THE PERSPECTIVE FROM THE BUSINESS SECTOR?
“Success today relies heavily on individual flexibility and creativity . . . requires “soft skills” and personality traits that are not taught in most of today’s universities: social intelligence, passion, curiosity, optimism and, especially, common sense.”
– Dean Freeman in Wall Street Journal: Why Companies Aren’t Getting Grads With the Skills They Need
“What Sara possessed and Jane notably lacked were “soft skills”: the talents that business gurus have pinpointed as the modern workplace’s most sought-after qualities. Including intangible attributes such as punctuality, flexibility, good communication and cooperativeness, soft skills are impossible to quantify but are, according to increasingly exasperated bosses, potentially far more valuable than exam results.”
–
IN ADDITION:
“Even graduates themselves have found that (soft) skills are more valuable to their careers than their degrees.”
–Got a Diploma? Employers Would Rather See These Skills, By
“…qualifications are important (but) just as important to us are so-called soft skills, character skills, the ability to get on with different people, to articulate yourself clearly, confidence, grit, self-control. They are saying we are not seeing enough of this in kids coming out of school.”
– Nick Hurd, the former Minister for Civil Society, UK
Perception vs. Reality
Student’s believe they are prepared for the work place. But the evaluation employers give recent college graduate tells another story.
According to a report by Hart Research Associates for The Association of American Colleges and Universities, employers give college graduates low scores for preparedness across learning outcomes while students believe they are better prepared.
Below are the proportions in how recent college graduates view their readiness and preparedness in each area, versus how employers view them:
Working with others in teams.
Oral Communication.
Critical/Analytical thinking.
Being Innovative/creative.
Problem Solving.
Applying skills/knowledge to real world.
The trend continues when skills related to working globally are compared:
• Awareness and experience of diverse cultures in the U.S. – 48% of graduates believe they are ready, whereas only 21% of employers surveyed feel recent graduates are well prepared in this area.
• Working with people from different backgrounds – 55% of graduates believe they are ready, whereas only 18% of employers surveyed feel recent graduates are well prepared in this area.
• Awareness and experience of diverse cultures outside of the U.S. – 42% of graduates believe they are ready, whereas only 15% of employers surveyed feel recent graduates are well prepared in this area.
We’re not saying that academics aren’t important.