California Career Briefs: Get Soft Skills

CA Career Briefs

“No matter how smart they are, or how many degrees they earn, students need a solid set of soft skills in order to be successful.”

- Nancy Barry, Author and Speaker Get Soft Skills

Did you know?

Employers seek employees who have a positive attitude, strong work ethic, excellent communication skills and business etiquette savvy. They want new hires who are passionate about their work, see everything as an opportunity, and meet deadlines. These skills are dubbed soft skills and are not typically taught in a college course. Yet, studies suggest that hard skills contribute to only 15% of a person’s workplace success while the remaining 85% relies on good soft skills. Give your students an edge over the competition by helping them define and develop their soft skills.

Do this…

• Ask students to help you define soft and hard skills.

List some of their hard skills. (do calculus, speak French…)List some of their soft skills. (effective speaker, great collaborator…)

• View video.
• Distribute the Student Activity, review directions and complete.
• Share some students’ responses to…would you hire you?

Get Real!

For several more free and collaborative soft skills lessons try Backpack to Briefcase and the Workplace Skills archive on CACareerBriefs.com. For soft skills lessons students can complete indepedently, steer them to Get Job Ready on CACareerCafe.Com.