Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the so-called soft skills – abilities that significantly increase a person's demand in the labor market not due to a narrow professional competence, a person's profession or specialty, but due to non-specific competencies. Together with you, we decided to figure out what these soft skills are, what they include, and how to get them.
Hard & Soft: What Are the Different Skills?
Skills have two types – "hard" and "soft".
- To the first (hard skills) we refer to skills of a professional or technical nature - those that a person acquires at school, and then improves at the workplace. These skills cannot be touched, but you can measure with a fairly high level of accuracy and understand how well you speak a foreign language or computer program, what experience you have obtained, etc.
- With soft skills, the situation is somewhat different. They are not related to a particular specialty and are universal, they are more about a person's personality, and not about his professional application.
That is, if you are able to think creatively or show an emotional, empathic beginning in communication with other people, then these are just soft skills. We will also include the ability to decide, determine one's actions in the short and medium term, and be responsible for them.
Who can benefit from soft skills and why?
Over the past few years, they have been talking about how useful soft skills are, but few people use the term correctly. So, of course, soft skills are really useful, and in different situations: with their help, you can, for example, impress the employer, so that he immediately offers better conditions, a higher level of income and a "vertical" career.
Almost a decade ago, at a forum of economists in Davos, Switzerland, a list of soft skills of the future was formulated, such that in just 5 years it will be impossible to imagine a specialist without them, no matter what field he works in:
- the ability to solve problems in a comprehensive manner;
- creative and critical thinking;
- the ability to team work and manage people, their potential;
- focus on customer requests;
- the ability to reason and make decisions based on formed judgments;
- the ability to perceive emotions (both one's own and those of others), to manage them;
- Quickly switch between tasks.
What are the benefits of soft skills?
Soft skills will be useful not only for a young careerist — they will help you communicate with family members and friends.
- For example, if you can express your thoughts clearly, you will be able to capture the attention of the audience not only by presenting a report or taking an exam, but also in the circle of friends, communicating informally.
- If you learn to control yourself, you will be able to avoid waves of negativity that unsettle and make any creative activity impossible.
- Finally, the ability to form your schedule and manage time will help in almost any situation. Not to be late for the exam? Find time to go out with friends? Save time by choosing a successful transplant? All this not only saves time, but also helps to save energy, which means that it is easier and more efficient to achieve the tasks.
According to employers, soft skills are more than important — 97% of IT business leaders named them among the competencies and skills vital for working in their company. The most popular were the ability to express thoughts clearly, distinctly and concisely (both orally and in writing) and to explain complex things in simple words.
How to develop soft skills?
No one has yet come up with any special courses or educational programs for the development and improvement of soft skills. And it is not necessary: everything is solved at the everyday level - for example, by participating in quizzes, quests, board games, extracurricular and project activities.
- Quests
They help you learn to think not in templates, but "for profit", immediately identify a problem and look for one or more suitable solutions. Also, the quest helps you learn how to work in a team, listen to others and insist on your own, and this is the best way to develop a team streak.
- Orienteering
During orienteering classes, you learn to command and obey, develop a sense of teamwork, learn to understand when a teammate needs help; Also, such classes help to develop a sense of time. Similarly, during group games such as football or hockey, relay races or team games, adolescents become more disciplined, learn to correctly work out criticism, accept both victories and failures with dignity.
- Board games
Games in which you will permanently interact with other participants in the game are suitable here: these are strategies and role-playing games, "Mafia" (you learn to understand other people's emotions and hide your own), "Monopoly" (the ability to work and negotiate), "Diplomacy", etc.
- School project activities
A project is a collaborative solution to a problem. To succeed, schoolchildren have to be able to obey and order, conduct discussions, argue their position, collect and analyze information, be able to plan and speak publicly, presenting the results of their work.
- Extracurricular activities and electives
The role of school circles and additional classes, school amateur activities of any type is not reduced to entertaining a teenager and giving him a break between really important activities. It is also the ability to learn to interact with a wide variety of audiences and behave confidently in front of them, regardless of moods and the degree of responsiveness (this is equally true for theater and film clubs, dance studios). The joint publication of a wall newspaper or a radio club will teach you how to collect, check and "pack" information, drawing will help you realize yourself and learn to critically perceive yourself, the results of your work.
