1. S.S.Dahanayake Senior Lecturer
Strategies to Develop Soft Skills in the Bachelor of Education Undergraduates .
S.S.Dahanayake
Senior Lecturer
Dept. of Humanities Education, Faculty of Education, University of Colombo

2. Background
Various International and local reports highlighted the necessity of having skills oriented graduates.
The issue of unemployed graduates
It is necessary to enhance the employability of university graduates through the inculcation of soft skills in higher education institutions.
The University curriculum needs to incorporate soft skills

3. Cont; On going research
The main focus of this paper is to identify strategies that can be used to develop the soft skills of the Bachelor of education undergraduates in the Faculty of Education
Embedded Model
Stand Alone Model
Combined Stand Alone and Embedded Model

4. Conceptual Framework
Embedded model(Approach of embedding the soft skills in theT.&L.activities across the curriculum)

5. Evidence from Litrerature
America
Malaysia
Taiwan
South Africa

6. Sample/ Participants Hundred Undergraduates
Ten university lecturers from Faculty of Education University of Colombo for interviews.

7. Findings
Majority of the lecturers were agreeable to the incorporation of soft skills in the curriculum through an embedded model.
However Majority of the lecturers’ views are that they need more time in their lectures in order to in cooperate soft skills
Changed the instructional system in the areas of : Learning outcomes, Syllabus content, Instructional system, Soft Skills and Assessment

8. They agree that Role play, Group work, Presentation, Field work, Brainstorming, Effective questioning method, Case studies, Reflective journals are modes that can be incorporated into development of soft skills.
A variety of co-curriculum activities are offered : Uniform activities ,Sports activities, Cultural activities, Leadership activities, Debates etc.
Reflecting on School Experience

9. Suggestions Conduct awareness programmes
Training of teachers on how to teach and assess soft skills at all levels of education

10. References
Curts D (2010) Defining, Assessing and Measuring Generic competencies Findlers University of South Australia
Fleischmann M.E.(2013) Soft Skills of excellent teachers in diverse South African schools in Western Cape. Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University
Li-Tze Lee &Tien-Tse Lee (2011)Investigating Soft Skills for Success in the Workforce: perceptions of Elementary School TeachersInternational Review of Social Sciences and Humanities Vol.1, No,2 pp
Singh, G.K.K and Singh ,G.K.S Malaysian Graduates’ Employability Skills UNTAR E- Journal Vol 4, NO 1 January
World Bank Report (2005), Treasures of the Education System in Sri Lanka: Human Development Unit South Asia Region, Colombo
http;// They Really Ready to Work? Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce Conference Board 2006