Ethan MoreStudents learn almost everything that they know in their life from school. In the early years of childhood, they are taught to speak, read and write. Eventually, as they progress into middle school, high school, and college they acquire another set of skills that depend on their areas of interest and career goals.
Let us now draw back to the part where students are acquiring skills. There are two types of skills: hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are extremely technical for example if a student has decided to study in the commerce stream they are learning to do accounting, and read the progress of the stock market as a part of their hard skills. Soft skills, on the other hand, are related to more qualitative skills which cannot be measured in quantitative terms. We can see how fluent a student is in a particular language either by the way they speak or by their grades. Yet, native speakers also scored less in their language subjects, does that mean that they cannot speak the language? Obviously not.
An institution’s ERP always promotes the acquisition of a diverse range of skills by students. However, since the mode of education has changed previously and everyone is now struggling to adapt to the features of an LMS rather than going to attend classes physically, institutions have been unable to focus on the development of soft skills. Once the child knows which soft skills will benefit them in everyday life and in their future career, they will be able to practice them by themselves with little to no guidance from an institution.
Let us get to know the necessary soft skills every student should be aware of and take measures to acquire them;
Networking
Students learn to make friends from the early years of their childhood. They interact with classmates, teachers, and also other students in their senior years. This is an unofficial form of networking. When some children have extensive networks, they know about all the activities in the school and can get in touch with the right people at the right time. Learning to network and connect with others not only for their benefit but also for ease of work and communication in the environment is one of the most valuable skills the student can acquire. It helps them immensely to navigate through life easily in a work environment and at home too.
Critical thinking and problem solving
Besides academic knowledge, students should have a general idea or sense of the basic circumstances of life. Thinking logically is very important in every child because this logical reasoning leads them to solve a problem efficiently in a shorter period.
Decision making
Making decisions could be hard, especially for younger students. They can ponder over the choice of flavors of ice creams or chocolates for hours before finally deciding and then changing their mind almost immediately again. This is why students are taught to make decisions efficiently based on the pros and cons that are available to them. After all, every step in our life is related to some form of decision-making. Hence, students should be able to do it efficiently.
Teamwork
Socializing conveniently with everyone is not a quality every child has. Some of them find difficulty mixing with others either because of their personality traits, which obviously cannot be changed and only modified, but also because of their values. Teachers ease students a lot into working in teams by assigning group activities and other tasks like debates.
Empathy, and attitude
When present in a social environment, students should also worry and consider the opposite person’s feelings. This is known as empathy, which many of them lack because they have not been taught to think in the right direction. This thinking process is developed with experience most of the time. Teachers can also teach students to have the right attitude towards the right people by initiating such experiences in a classroom.
Communication
Although this might seem like a part of our everyday life, communicating is not everyone’s cup of tea. Thinking about something, and getting it out into words in the right way requires real skill. Communicative skills development is a necessity for all students. Every teacher should promote this in their class by initiating conversations.
Yash
Ethan More
