Soft Skills
I found this CEE to be most helpful. My confusion is that when we discuss soft skills here, we are told to list soft skills as "math" ect.. That seems "odd" to me. Woild you consider math a soft skill?
Lisa,
Yes!! Soft skills can make or break an employee on the job. I've read and believe more people are separated from their employment not for the technical aspects of theoir job, but for the more basic (attendance, grooming, language, behavior, professionalism, etc.).
Barry Westling
I teach the soft skills in my Professional Development class to nursing students, many of my peers devalue the content of my class when comparing nursing competency skills to soft skills. I feel soft skills are the foundation of any successful technical skills. Does anyone else feel this way?
Alisha,
I consider these among the category of soft skills: courteous speech, respect for faculty and classmates, attendance, punctuality, dress, grooming hygiene, promptness, paying attention, and keeping busy. Obviously these are transferable to the work setting and can rightly be a part of the training for successful workers. In my program we have "Professional Development" points that can be deducted for failure to follow stated guidelines discussed at orientation, on the first day of class, and are in the course syllabus. I frame these as positive attributes that will help them be successful rather than penalties. I do this in part by giving all the points at the beginning and then make dedections along the way as applicable.
Barry Westling
Soft skills as explained to me are skills that are often not "teachable". They are teachable but some people just naturally have these ethics instilled in them, and some don't. For example: calling in sick to school or work. Sickness can have many different meaning for different people. To some, high fever and contagious would warrant not going to school or work. For others, simply a head cold or not feeling up to par would initiate a call in.
Jacquelyn ,
Absolutely. Math, when it is a integral objective in a course is not a soft skill, but a mandatory one.
Barry Westling
I personally do not consider Math as a soft skill
when dosing medication if exact calculations are not performed correctly patient reaction may be grossly altered. I would consider communicating the process (explaining the steps) a soft skill.
Sean,
This is a god example where math could be considered a soft skills. Relating it to the work setting, most jobs have some sort of relatively easy computational or aritmitic associated with it. Doing simple math problems as part of a job could determine how well a new employee is received and evaluated by an employer.
Barry Westling
For the courses at our school, math would very definitely be considered a soft skill. We don't have any course content that delves very deeply into math, but pretty much everything we do has a bit of math mixed in with it. It is mostly basic arithmetic, maybe a little geometry and light algebra thrown in. As part of our course we do not actually "teach" any of the prerequisite math. Only doing the occasional one on one work with a student who is a little behind on the fundementals.
Diana,
Ultimately workers with critical thinking ability, coupled with softskills, and technical knowledge and application are the ones who will be successful and sustain employment over many years.
Barry Westling
I feel that in the course of a life time one needs to have the soft skills of math, to incorperate with the computer generation and going forth. Todays society needs much more that just the soft skills in on area. Great information with this Forum.
Kim,
For a math class, or even most vocational programs, I would not consider math a soft skill. Math "could be" categorized as a soft skill in the sense that most jobs require basic computational skills, much like good grammar, speech, courtesy, dress, grooming, hygiene, attendance, punctuality and communication, and following basic directions are tenets of soft skills.
Barry Westling
