Soft Skills

I have to admit; when I flip through the newspaper I only select few articles that I would like to read. That’s why when our lecturer mentioned ‘soft skills’ in class, I gaped at him as if he was speaking in a different language. After asking around and actually reading the articles concerning this matter, I obtained better understanding of the topic.

Soft skills are actually the skills that are not taught in textbooks but are equally important in our post-student life, specifically during our pursuit of a career or our working life. It includes social skills, communication skills, leadership, teamwork, and lots more. When it is put that way, it is easier to understand.

After class discussions, we agreed that a number of students still lack these skills. When we try to analyze this problem, surely we have to find the cause of it but it will just be a long, endless list and I’m not interested in blaming anybody. So, we can just focus on how to improve the students’ soft skills.

I believe that knowledge still surpass all other skills so the first thing is to be knowledgeable, which is opposed to ignorant. Daily newspapers are to be read, and read the real news where you can benefit from it. Read a lot of books, for they will never fail to teach you something. Don’t hate your subjects in school. I used to hate history, but you’ll be amazed at how much it affects our life now. When talking about the constitution or historic events, I seem to miss out a lot on the matter. Even math, which just seems to be a bunch of numbers thrown together, are not just a bunch of numbers anymore when you’re actually working in the field that requires the skill. So that’s just a couple of examples about the importance of knowledge.

Communication skills can be acquired everywhere, excluding the time when you’re sleeping or in the bathroom (unless you want to bring your cell phone there). Speak, chat, talk with everybody and you will learn that with different people, different manners of speaking are required. This is actually a very good lesson so that you will know when to be formal or informal with the right people. If you are still stuck, go to seminars on public speaking or go purchase one of the many motivational books on communication skills. That should help.

Working alone is good, because you can get the job done the way you want it to. But what happens when you need to work with people? That’s where the leadership and teamwork skills come to use. Working in groups, team-building and that sort of activities requires skills so that everyone can benefit from it. For example, if you are a leader, you have to make sure everyone is involved and nobody is left out. Teamwork obliges you to be responsible for your duty and to help others in need. All of these skills are within us, it’s just up to us when and where to use it.

Those are some of the examples of how to improve soft skills among students. Learning is a life-long act, so we still have time to improve ourselves and learning something new everyday.