1. Start Delivering Better Soft Skills Training!
Dr. Amanda Opperman, Director of Competency-Based Solutions, Wonderlic, Inc.
Presentation © Wonderlic, Inc. 2016

2. Introduction:
Better understand which soft skills employers expect from graduates and how to verify those skills to employers.
Benefit from Wonderlic’s 80 years of leadership as hiring experts to discover ways to turn the soft skills gap into an opportunity.
Dive into results from two nationwide surveys that pinpoint employer expectations of soft skills training.

3. Which soft skills employers expect from graduates:
Wonderlic’s National Consortium on Soft Skills
Client Network:
~2,000 Educators
~10,000 Employers
Steering Committee:
32 Employers,
Career Educators,
Community College Educators, &
Non-Profit Organizations
Advisory Committee:
372 employers
of entry-level,
mid-skilled workers
from a variety of
industries nationwide
Research Partners:
800+ employers and
educators volunteered
for validation studies,
usability testing, &
surveys

4. Which soft skills employers expect from graduates:
Competency rating & ranking by SMEs
Refine based on pilot user feedback
Survey of 270+ employers
April 2016
Survey of 750+ employers
July 2016
Iterate based on focus group feedback

5. Which soft skills employers expect from graduates:
Other
Nonverbal &
Listening Skills
Initiative
Teamwork
Interpersonal Skills
Communication
Self-Management
Critical Thinking
Professionalism
Customer Service

6. How to verify soft skills to employers:
1.7% of employers surveyed agreed that local career and community colleges provided them with credentials that clearly verify graduates’ soft skills
78.2% preferred receiving job-related, competency-based credentials over an academic transcript to verify soft skills
79.9% preferred hiring a student who had high scores on a job-related, competency-based assessment than one who had a high GPA

7. How to verify soft skills to employers:
Unit One: Interacting with Others
Lesson One: Interpersonal Skills
Lesson Two: Nonverbal & Listening Skills
Lesson Three: Communication
Unit Two: Making Decisions
Lesson Four: Self-Management
Lesson Five: Critical Thinking
Lesson Six: Initiative
Unit Three: Delivering Results
Lesson Seven: Professionalism
Lesson Eight: Customer Service
Curriculum
Assessment
Digital Badges
Competency-Based

8. How to verify soft skills to employers:
Unit One: Interacting with Others
Lesson One: Interpersonal Skills
Lesson Two: Nonverbal & Listening Skills
Lesson Three: Communication
Unit Two: Making Decisions
Lesson Four: Self-Management
Lesson Five: Critical Thinking
Lesson Six: Initiative
Unit Three: Delivering Results
Lesson Seven: Professionalism
Lesson Eight: Teamwork
Student Learning Objective (SLO)1: Discuss the interpersonal skills needed to build collaborative relationships
SLO2: Compare and contrast soft skills and hard skills
SLO3: Discover how to develop informed, well-supported beliefs
SLO4: Explain how to think critically about social accountability
SLO5: Describe the process of perception by identifying influential factors of the perceiver, the target and the situation
SLO6: Demonstrate professional methods of handling common challenges such as sexual harassment, inappropriate behavior, cultural and religious prejudice
SLO7: Define the personal characteristics of a successful employee
SLO8: Describe the reasons for performing performance appraisals

9. How to verify soft skills to employers:

10. How to verify soft skills to employers:

11. How (not) to verify soft skills to employers:

12. How to verify soft skills to employers :

13. Turning the soft skills gap into an opportunity:

14. Turning the soft skills gap into an opportunity:

15. Turning the soft skills gap into an opportunity:

16. Employer expectations of soft skills training:
86% of employers believe educators should work more closely with employers to ensure graduates’ skills align with workforce needs.
83% of employers prefer digital badges over academic transcripts when making hiring decisions
86.5% stated they would encourage local educators to provide their students with job-related, competency-based credentials that verify soft skills

17. Q&A

18. Thank you!
Dr. Amanda Opperman, Director of Competency-Based Solutions at Wonderlic, Inc., is a veteran higher education professional with vast experience in and out of the classroom. She leads initiatives to help institutions achieve better outcomes through the planning and implementation of competency-based assessment, instruction, and digital badging. Dr. Opperman is also experienced in institutional effectiveness planning and faculty training. She began her career in higher education as an English and Rhetoric & Writing Studies professor at San Diego State University. Most recently, she served as the Assistant Dean at California University of Management and Sciences. She earned her PhD in Education from the San Diego State University/Claremont Graduate University Joint Doctoral program.
Presentation © Wonderlic, Inc. 2016