Overview
Being a good worker means having the skills to do the job. When most of us think of skills, we think of job-specific skills such as a mechanic's ability to repair engines or a pilot's ability to fly a plane. Yet many of the most important skills needed in today's workplace are used in nearly every job. They are soft skills-those skills that allow us to adapt or get along in most situations at work. They are the skills that dictate how we interact with supervisors, coworkers, customers, and clients, and they include our personality traits, personal qualities, and interpersonal skills.
Most importantly, soft skills are the skills most sought after by employers. Because most job-specific skills can be easily taught, employers would prefer to hire individuals with the required soft skills, such as adaptability, dependability, and responsibility. Moreover, since they are required for nearly every job, these soft skills are easily transferable from one occupation to the next.
This video discusses the importance of soft skills in the workplace and shows employees and job seekers how they can use their soft skills-or improve them-to be more productive and successful at work. The video uses four scenarios depicting workers who need to use key soft skills to do their jobs effectively.
The video provides opportunities and questions for group discussion after each of the four scenarios. Feel free to follow the cues, pausing for activities and discussion as your own schedule dictates.
Presentation Suggestions
Begin by asking students about their own experiences at work. Have they had difficulties with customers or coworkers who were disrespectful, unreliable, or dishonest? Have they had difficulty working on a team or communicating with others? Have they themselves struggled with being on time, making decisions, following instructions, or being friendly?
Odds are students will have experiences with people who lack some of the basic soft skills required in the workplace, and every student can probably identify one or two soft skills that they could improve on themselves.
Point out that like all other skills, soft skills can be learned and improved. Also remind students that they are responsible for their own actions, attitudes, and behaviors, and that the point of this video and discussion is not to recognize faults in others, but to think about ways to enhance their own soft skills.
When you feel students have begun thinking about these issues, give them the Anticipation Quiz to complete prior to watching the video. If you wish, allow the students to state their answers and discuss them.
Show the video. Encourage students to take notes or to make changes to the answers they put down for the Anticipation Quiz while watching the video.
At the conclusion of the video, ask students to discuss any changes they made to their answers on the Anticipation Quiz as a result of information they learned. Follow up this discussion with the Activities.
Use the Discussion Questions to request oral or written responses from students or assign the questions as homework essays.
Give the Quick Quiz at the conclusion of class and correct the quizzes as a group. Assign the Homework Option, if desired.