“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent that will survive but the one most adaptable to change” – Charles Darwin
Sujit was an ideal student, always admired by teachers for his sincerity and dedication in studies. If not always first, he was always there in the top three positions in any exam. Everybody was sure that a great career awaited him. Sujit went on to graduate as an engineer from a very reputed college and also kick started his career with a great job in an IT company at Pune. But the story is not so rosy from here on.
Sujit could not make himself comfortable in the new environment of his company which required him to collaborate with teammates, negotiate and convince peers and superiors, think creatively and come up with solutions … He changed his job several times with the hope of getting a better boss, better teammates and a less stressful environment. He could never grow and succeed as much as everyone thought he would. The career that looked so promising never took off. His personal life was also far from exciting.
It’s a sad story but not a rare story. We have seen this happening with many good, promising students. How could we have ensured that Sujit succeeded in life?
Hard Skills and Soft Skills:
From the above story it is clear that focusing only on studies to gain subject knowledge and marks is not enough. We will need to equip our children with certain other qualities, other than just subject knowledge.
Let us define hard skills as acquiring good educational qualifications from reputed colleges. These are absolutely essential to have a great career.
But, we should also remember that our qualifications are not the only thing that will ensure that we have a great career. Along with great qualifications we also need certain other qualities in us that will make us successful in our career and life overall. We shall call these qualities as soft skills.
So what actually are these soft skills? Soft skills are qualities like people skills, communication skills, creative thinking, emotional intelligence and personality management that enable us to work efficiently with others, perform well in all areas of our life and achieve our goals. Here is a list of some soft skills that we should strive to inculcate in us whether we are a student or a manager:
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- Communication skills [includes negotiation skills]
- Creative thinking and problem solving skills
- People skills [interpersonal skills]
- Public speaking skills
- Working in teams
- Leadership skills
- Personality management
- Emotional intelligence
The above list is in no ways a complete set of essential soft skills, but these are the basic soft skills we need to develop to be successful in today’s world. Let me explain the last two ie, Personality management and Emotional intelligence in detail.
Personality management includes time management, effective body language, presence of mind / alertness and stress management.
Emotional intelligence includes the ability to remain calm and composed in every situation, positive and flexible attitude, empathy, compassion to understand the other person’s point of view, optimism and growth mindset.
The skills gap
While on one hand youths are complaining about lack of employment opportunities, employers and businessmen on the other hand are complaining about lack of skilled workforce. Employers claim that they can grow faster if they get skilled workforce. This is also called as the skills gap.
‘The skills gap’ is the divide between the skills employers expect employees to have and the skills employees and job seekers actually possess.
Multinational companies like Google, Facebook and IBM have stated publicly many times that they are looking for candidates with soft skills and creativity other than just subject matter knowledge. Even Indian companies complain that our graduates are not skilled enough to deliver in today’s highly competitive and critical positions. In fact, the unemployment problem also has its root cause in lack of soft skills among the youth. We often see talented people with poor soft skills getting fired every day.
It has been my personal observation that the best performing teachers are the ones who show mental alertness and presence of mind. Some good teachers in spite of being dedicated and having good teaching and communication skills are not able to be effective due to lack of alertness and presence of mind. So they end up not following the instructions or committing silly mistakes in documentation.
Leadership Skills
Good leaders are rare these days and every organization wants leaders who take initiative and lead the organization towards growth. Employers want to know if you have the potential to contribute to the company and the team by taking on the responsibilities of a leader.
Regardless of the position, being able to work well with others is crucial at any level, even to become a good boss, you need good team working abilities.
I will strongly recommend you all to see an interview of Yuval Harari, author of bestselling book ‘21 lessons for success in the 21st century’ on the two most important skills for the rest of your life https://youtu.be/x6tMLAjPVyo. In this interview he states that the two most essential skills for 21st century are:
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- Emotional intelligence and
- The ability to learn new skills at any stage of life.
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In this rapidly changing world, parents and schools should remember that we are preparing our children for careers and businesses which do not exist today. Due to technological advances, jobs and businesses that exist today will be non-existent tomorrow and some totally new type of careers will be arising in the coming years. In such a scenario, a flexible mindset and the ability to continuously learn and update will be a critical skill for surviving and succeeding. Soft skills will become the decisive factor in gaining competitive advantage for securing a high value job in the days to come.
So what can we as schools, students and parents do to improve our soft skills?
Schools should define a set of soft skills to focus on and prepare a plan of action. It should be included in its annual plan and made a part of timetable with one dedicated teacher for this. This is an ideal scenario and I know that it is practically very difficult to bring it into reality considering the pressure on completing syllabus and ensuring that good marks are scored by all students. But we should also remind ourselves that our children from Daman (small towns) will have to face competition from big city students who usually have better soft skills.
As students we must ask ourselves: Which soft skills am I lacking and need to focus on developing ?
The current lockdown has given us a good opportunity to think about which soft skills we would like to develop in us and plan accordingly. We can read online books and articles and watch YouTube videos about how we can inculcate these soft skills in our daily lives. I know of a friend who has gone through a lot of YouTube videos to understand what makes a good posture and impressive walking style and is practicing it himself. Another friend of mine is watching videos on how to give effective stage speeches. There was never a better time to do such things than the current lockdown. We cannot fool ourselves by giving sloppy excuses to ourselves. Let’s do it NOW!
-By Vishwajeet Borate,
Director, Sunrise Champs Schools.
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Very nice article and very true looking at the current market analysis.
Learning is never ending process, combinations of academic and social education may groom the development of child. The intellect is supreme in human being. I am glad to appraise that your institute is focus on intellect rather than robotic education. We hope that Student of Sunrise Champ would be facilitated on soft skill workshop in new academic year.
Thanks, keep motivating child n parents
Good….. It’s not only story but it’s true real story of one my friend…. Nice sir…
Wow,
Very well articulated. First the narration of the person and then reasons behind his failures and the suggestions…
We actually know this but when the person at higher level explain it makes differences…thanks for sharing your views.
You are found a great job…! Also, why don’t you teach children to be happy and content, as Kejri has done in Delhi school
A Great Explanation
It is all about skill development. Considering this you have proven that students of your school will definitely inculcate these skills.
Nicely written.
I think soft skill gets little respect,but will make or change your future.
It is very good attempt to define the distinction between hard skills & soft skills. You are taking utmost care to improve your students personality. I wish all the Best for your sincere attempts.
Hearty Congratulations!
If possible, do think about “reference skill” as well.
All the Best ❗?
good