Innovative recipe for youth success – Soft skills development

In this new era of rising technology, rapid flow of too much information, existence of many games and applications that take the time and focus of the youth, developing soft skills is of essential importance.

Fourteen-year-old Vedran has a problem in social communication. He is irritable, often moves his shoulders nervously, makes so-called movements. He "dab" (move with his hands like Youtube bloggers do), and he bites his nails especially when he is very nervous. When someone in authority, for example a professor, asks him something, he usually mumbles to himself and looks at the floor, instead of making eye contact and answering. He has one or two friends that he rarely sees, but that's why he has many friends through social networks that he talks to non-stop online. In real communication, he is weak in expression. He is very intelligent, but he cannot express himself well in the Macedonian language because he knows more English words. His low self-esteem prevents him from participating in school activities.

Thirteen-year-old Mia has a nervous and hot-tempered personality. She believes that beauty and appearance is all that is needed in this world. The whole world happens to her through social networks, but in practice she doesn't have a single friend. Sometimes she gets close to a friend for a certain time but then a competition starts between the two of them, which usually ends in a fight, gossip or insults. She is envious of other children's success and tries to disparage them by screen-shooting their pictures from social networks and sharing them with other children. He has no concentration to read and study long lessons.

If you are the parent of such a child, it will not be difficult to recognize your son/daughter in this description and identify his problem. He is like a diamond that needs to be polished in order to shine (read succeed!) in life. This is what soft skills development does in children. They smooth a person's sharp edges and help them succeed in relationships, communication, choices and life in general.

 

What are soft skills?

In our free translation, soft skills (in English) would be translated as "Development of interpersonal skills", and are a sociological term that refers to the level of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) that a person has. This term includes the following characteristics that a person should have developed: good manners, optimism, common sense, sense of humor, empathy, ability to cooperate and negotiate. However, emotions are manifested through communication. We usually understand communication as a rational process, by which some information is transmitted to the interlocutor through words. But then why do people misunderstand us? Most likely because verbal communication goes through our emotions and is perceived as such by the interlocutor. And the emotions we radiate are the way we inform others about where we are in our life! Emotions are what determine us in relationships with other people. In addition to this, the development of soft skills in a person complements and influences the development of so-called hard skills, that is, the degree of intelligence (IQ) of the person, which is built and grows most prominently during puberty among young people.

In other words, while hard skills refer to academic, professional and technical knowledge and skills, soft skills refer to broad personal and interpersonal skills that are intangible and difficult to define and even more difficult to observe or measure.

We know that today the key to a person's career or professional development is to have learned soft skills that can someday be a decisive factor in whether they will be admitted or accepted in a school, university or in a new environment and later at work. That is why, in addition to standard qualifications, today employers are increasingly looking for people who have invested in the development of their soft skills.

To be honest, in our country, soft skills training is mostly represented in the corporate sector or exists in colleges as part of a subject, but the need for this education, especially among young people who go to classical education, is undoubtedly missing because our education system is still not adapted. of the new open Internet world in which young people live today.

Learning and acquiring the new knowledge that soft skills bring to a person's life gives a huge advantage in social communication, which in turn will help the person in directing their own further career and professional development!

Life and soft skills

Most often these two terms life skills and soft skills are used interchangeably or together, but in fact soft skills are a subset of life skills, which is still a broader concept.

Soft skills relate to the outside world and include communication and behavior. Along with raising soft skills, it is important to create life skills that relate to the inner world of values in a person, all in order to form a healthy mind, healthy relationships and relations with the world, with the environment and with oneself. To explain graphically, for example, if the development of soft skills represents the construction of a modern large building, life skills are the foundations on which the building rises!

What is the meaning of life and soft skills in this globalized world?

In today's competitive world, the value of soft skills is more than necessary. Psychologists say that a successful person is one who can not only defend his views, but also who can convey his knowledge, who can listen, sympathize, that is, understand the situation from the other's point of view. Life development and soft skills are becoming increasingly important in today's world as young people are bombarded with so many unrealistic messages from movies, social media and peers. In addition to completing academic education and getting a diploma, they also need to get a job, so it is necessary for them to learn how to deal with life, their emotions and how to build relationships with their peers.

Life skills that young people need to develop include acquiring and practicing: awareness of self and one's place in society, decision-making techniques, problem solving, creative thinking, critical thinking, empathy, coping with emotions and stress, communication skills, financial skills and more.

Definitely, today in Macedonia we more than need reliable and balanced persons who will be able to responsibly take over the future in order to be a new workforce, which will bring new positive and human values to our society.

It's time to try this new recipe for success for the good of our children!

M.Sc. Biljana Pesheva

Professional adult trainer and yoga instructor