Vol. 4 Issue 43 – Article: 'Soft Skills – Indispensable for Success' by B.Shoba Rao

ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue#43 | October 22, 2012 | ISSN 0975-3036

This article is submitted by B.Shoba Rao, Ph.D Research Scholar at University of Madras.

Abstract

Today soft have become very important and is the key mantra to success in both the professional and personal front.Soft skills is now  a subject in most colleges in Chennai and students have to take an exam that gets them credits. With India emerging as a hub for different out sourcing activities, employers  want their employers to have soft skills  along with the technical or hard skills. Teachers  therefore, do play an important role in enhancing  soft skills among students at the tertiary level from where most of them refer to go for an employment.Academicians,course planners and material producers, collaborators and people at the helm of affairs are looking at how best these skills go to the students and they use them at work to bring success not only for themselves and the organization they work.

Introduction

This paper highlights the need to make soft skills an integral part of the curriculum so that students take with them valuable input to the work front where they spend maximum number of hours of a day. Soft skills should be taken more seriously than just being an add – on subject in the curriculum. In this paper,we highlight how soft skills could be taught through literature so that students not only appreciate the text,but they also get enriched with the soft skills that each piece of literature can lend itself to. Curriculum developers could see how best they could integrate soft skills through other subjects as well.This paper therefore provides a bird’s eye view on this context and the need to for exploring ways to teach soft skills in a more meaningful and effective way at the tertiary level.

Some Definitions on Soft Skills

• According to Alex (2009), soft skills refer to abilities that make people better employees and open doors for many opportunities that aren’t directly related to the subject matter for their jobs. In other words, soft skills refer to a person’s ability to relate to others, to get him/herself and others organized, to communicate in written, spoken or other forms.
• According to Hariharan ,Sundarajan and Shanmugapriya(2010), soft skills facilitate young graduates to be employable. It therefore becomes am integral part of one’s personality.
• ‘Soft skills’ is an abstract concept, which is, in fact, a compendium of several components like attitude, abilities, habits and practices that are combined adeptly to maximize one’s work effectiveness.(Ramesh Gopalasway and Ramesh Mahadevan(2010)

Therefore, soft skills are built on attitudes, and are  manifested as  etiquette and polished by communication. (Ramesh Gopalasway and Ramesh Mahadevan(2010)

We could then say simply say, ‘Soft skills are special competencies that are hand in glove with the technical skills that one brings success at the workplace and personal life as well.’

                                                                  

The Role of Soft Skills in Personal Growth

Soft skills

• compliment hard skills and help in the smooth execution of whatever is planned as it involves people.
• help one excel in the workplace and their importance cannot be denied in this age of globalization and knowledge transfer.
• enables one to  stand out in a crowd .
• play an important part for the success of an organization as well.
• develop strong work ethics and accountability.
• enhance cultural tolerance among colleagues.
• boost self confidence and leadership qualities.
• promotes good inter personal and intrapersonal communication
• facilitates team spirit and provides scope for learning from criticism.
• help to keep stress and work pressure under control.
• makes one flexible and adaptable to situations.
• motivate oneself and others as well.

Soft Skills: Formal Teaching and Learning Models

   There are three models that can be used to develop soft skills among students at the higher level. According to Shipurkar.R (2009), three models can be followed for development of soft skills.

They are

a)      The Add –on Model

The word itself   implies that students could take soft skills as an additional subject during the course of their study. This could carry credits so that students take it seriously. In this way it helps to develop their people skills and also gives them an opportunity to earn more credit. However, the disadvantage of this model is that it is looked on as an additional load besides their time and effort to learn other course subjects.

b)      Integrated Model

In this model students learn soft skills along with their existing course and as such there is no need to take up a special course as in the add –on model .In this way they not only learn the course subjects, but also integrate soft skills . In this way, through different teaching methods, the students imbibe soft skills through their subjects. However, the disadvantage of this model is that it calls for more work on the part of the teachers as they have to build their materials and lectures around soft skills. However, students learn through brain-storming,  role–plays, simulation, task/projects and field work, and as such teaching is more students- centered and both the teachers and the students need to be very actively involved in this model.

c)      Composite Model

Looking at the draw backs of the above two models, a combination of add-on and integrated model to teach soft skills in the most optimal way has been suggested .In this model, some topics like time skills, voice quality, language, assertiveness are taken up as an add on for self improvement in the first year and the same skills are reinforced in the subsequent years using the integrated model. This enables students get familiar with certain soft skills in the first year and the same gets re-enforced in the consequent years.

The present research focuses on integrating soft skills through literature so that students not learn to observe the emotions in different characters in the literary piece, appreciate various cultures and imbibe related soft skills that are necessary to be successful in real life situations.

Further,students do require what is called  Emotional Intelligence(EI),  a term that became popular after the publication of Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence in the year 1996. This emotional intelligence en-composes two of the nine multiple intelligence according to Gardener,H. (1983).They are interpersonal skills(relationships with others) and interpersonal skills( managing self ).These are again  soft skills or people skills which can help students be successful.There are about sixty soft skills according to ‘The Workforce Profile’. If we look at them keenly we could say most of them fall into interpersonal skills (INTE) or intrapersonal (INTRA) skills or both.

Some Insights into Soft Skills Enhancement

It is not merely enough students pass a theoretical paper on soft skills and get the need credit for it. They need to have a practical idea as to what is expected from them and what mind set needs to be changed so that they  earn success at every phase. For this college administrator and policy makers at the higher levels need to give it a serious thought so that when they level colleges , they have an additional skills that is accepted globally along with their technical skills.

The following are some ways to  develop soft skills at the tertiary level:

• There must be an awareness drive on the importance of soft skills from the University or from individual colleges.
• Soft skills could be integrated and taught through literature, so that students catch values better and they stay longer in their minds.
• Other subjects could also integrate soft skills into their curriculum so that students imbibe these skills in the process of learning.
• The tenants of soft skills can be highlighted through assignments and projects.
• Soft skills workshops/training  could help students get exposed to what is essentially required by the employers at the workplace and be ready to face challenges of the corporate world.
• Emotional Intelligent questionnaires could he help students understand themselves  better and they work  to change themselves for the better.
• Students could be exposed to communication enhancement programs with focus to enhance both verbal and ot verbal communication.
• Exposure to different meditation techniques could help them bring down stress and strain  and channel their energy in purposeful activity.

There can be many more creative ways to teach soft skills.But what is essential is that an holistic integration of soft skills into the curriculum would enhance students’ emotional intelligence and multiple intelligence which would take them a long way in their career prospects.

Conclusion

Administrators, syllabus framers, teachers  therefore need to look into their soft skills syllabus more seriously and choose the right model of teaching soft skills so as to be in line with the requirement in real life. In this way when students leave colleges they are equipped with skills necessary to climb the ladder of success at a faster rate and are on the job for a long period of time. Students no doubt require these skills so that they are adept solution finders than problem makers at home and in the workplace and their by individual leaders in their area of command.

References:

Alex ,K. (2009),Soft Skills,Delhi: S.Chand

Gardener,H. (1983).Frames of mind.NewYork: Basic Books

Goleman,R.( 1996), Emotional Intelligence,Great Britain:Bloomsbury.

Hariharan .S., Sundarajan.,N., Shanmugapriya (2010) ,Softskills ,Chennai: MJP Publishers.

Ramesh Gopalaswamy Ramesh & Ramesh Mahadevan(2010), The Ace of Soft Skills, Noida: Pearson.

Shipurkar,R. (2009) Equipping Indian Graduates with Soft Skills: A Trainer’s Perspective in ‘Soft skills Cornerstone of Professional Success.’New Delhi: Jain Brothers.