Why Soft Skills Matter: 2010 Job Outlook Beverly Amer, Northern Arizona University

Backstory  Soft Skills are:  Traits, attitudes and behaviors rather than technical skills and abilities  More important than ever in today’s job market  A challenge to teach in “technical” courses!

What’s the Risk?

Why Do Soft Skills Matter? Job Outlook 2010  Annual Survey – National Association of Colleges and Employers  Across all industries and regions of US  College Hiring:  DOWN 7% for 2010 grads over last year  DOWN 37% in West

Take Out Your Phones!

Top Five Majors - West  Mechanical Engineering  Finance  Electrical Engineering  Accounting  Business Administration/Management

What Employers Are Looking For  Greater emphasis on GPA as an interview screen  75% of employers use a GPA screen  Most common cutoff is 3.0 GPA  On resume’ – choosing one candidate over another  Leadership position  Major  High GPA (3.0 +)  Extra-curricular activities  Volunteer work

What About Work Experience?  76.6% prefer someone with relevant work experience  Internships count here

And Soft Skills?  Communication skills top the list of attributes employers desire most  Other attributes near the top:  Strong work ethic  Initiative  Interpersonal skills  Problem-solving skills  Teamwork skills

Oddly Enough…  Attributes employers list as MOST LACKING in college graduates?  Communication skills  Flexibility/adaptability  Tactfulness  Initiative  Teamwork skills  Note: Only 2.3% of employers reported that computer skills are lacking

Soft Skills Case Study: Communication Skills  Scenario: First research report assignment at work  Topic: Workplace entrepreneurship  Decision: What should I include in my report and message?  Video from Soft Skills at Work

Meet Jill and Marcus

Video Critique  Task  Review Jill and Marcus’ reports and messages  Correct errors  How did they do?  In a CIS course, where could this be introduced as an assignment?

Results?  Swap papers with another group  Assign a grade – how did we do?

Why I Teach Communication Skills & Etiquette  “I submitted the wrong one, i will attach it to this file, oh and i put average next to the average cause it didnt make sence not to, and im sorry if i was just meant to tell you and you would forget about that one but i dont know if i will be here in the morning to check my but ya i will just attach it to this file, well see you tomorrow”

Soft Skills & Your Students  How can you help your students start developing their:  Communication skills  Interpersonal skills  Problem-solving skills  Teamwork skills

Making Room  Use the technology you are already teaching  Word one-page written summaries  PPT presentation in groups  Excel spreadsheet analysis to accompany Word reports  Entire workbook integrated into course

What’s the Risk?

Resources to Help You  Soft Skills at Work workbook for students  Web site from Cengage Web site   New! “Pro Skills” incorporated into New Perspectives Office 2010 First Course lab manual

Contact me! 