SOFT SKILLS: Connecting Classroom to Careers

Last Time We Met… Soft Skills Are: > Skills, abilities and traits that pertain to personality, attitude, and behavior Soft Skills Are Not: > Formal or technical knowledge

What Industry Thinks Technical skills and computer literacy are assumed!

What Industry Wants Skill sets that include: Oral and written communication skill Critical thinking ability Problem-solving resourcefulness Ability to work productively on a team

What Our Students Want Meaningful employment Competitive advantage in today’s economy Help with soft skills

One Solution: Soft Skills at Work Workbook and Video Package Published by Cengage Contains practical guidance with videos and personal reflection “callout boxes”

Our Experience at Northern Arizona University Implemented “Soft Skills at Work” Used in Intro CIS course Close to 1,000 students Fall 08 Topics covered: Resumes, attire, online persona management, written communication, team dynamics and generational differences, presentation basics

CIS Course Implementation Course Coverage Part lecture, part lab (Office 2007) Soft Skills Integration Replaced some critical thinking cases Covered all 5 workbook/video chapters by spacing them out over 15 weeks

What Did the Students Do? Completed the in-text “personal reflection” boxes Example: Watched and critiqued the accompanying videos Submitted end-of-chapter exercises

For Example… Chapters 4 and 5 Chapter 4 Exercise: Planning the Next Training Meeting (in teams) Had to research locations Created a Word document with summary Prepared an Excel worksheet for all locations Required team coordination on formatting, data collection and reporting

Then… Chapter 5 Teams selected and presented one location to the class Had to “dress the part” Submitted Word, Excel and PPT documents

Moment of Truth: Student Survey Student majors: Business Accounting, Finance, Advertising, Marketing, Management, CIS Hotel and restaurant management Elementary education Forestry, geology Entrepreneur /own business Health professions Dental, speech, medical, PT

Moment of Truth: Student Feedback Students were asked to rate topics in terms of how helpful it will be in the future. Resumes and interviewing skills: 97% (Somewhat to very helpful)

Moment of Truth: Student Feedback Online persona management, identify theft and cyberstalking: 88%

Moment of Truth: Student Feedback Written communication skills, e- mail/cell/text message etiquette: 90%

Moment of Truth: Student Feedback Team dynamics and generational differences: 89%

Moment of Truth: Student Feedback Presentation skills: 94%

Some of the Comments Related to the Chapter Contents I need to clean up my online persona – I have pictures out there I’d rather not be public! It helped me fix what was wrong with my resume’ I found things when I “googled” myself that surprised me! Made me realize that everyone on a team has a different personality but can still contribute These are life skills I will use all the time It reminded me how important basic grammar and etiquette are!

Moment of Truth: Student Feedback Students were asked to evaluate how much they learned from each chapter’s video episode. Resumes and interviewing skills: 72% (Moderate to tremendous amount)

Moment of Truth: Student Feedback What the recruiter does back at the office: 83%

Moment of Truth: Student Feedback Preparing for the first big writing assignment on the job: 81%

Moment of Truth: Student Feedback Working with a dysfunctional team: 83%

Moment of Truth: Student Feedback Making an effective presentation: 86%

Some of the Comments Related to the Videos I noticed how people acted – what worked and what didn’t. I don’t think I would have caught it if I didn’t actually see it. As soon as you walk in the building, you are being evaluated on how you present and carry yourself. I need to be prepared – do my research, dress appropriately, and act professionally if I want to get and keep my job. I need to speak up and not assume that people will know I am qualified just by looking at me or reading my resume’.

Students Enjoyed… The resume and interviewing skills chapter and videos the most (but the others received votes as well)

Would We Do It Again? Yes! We are! What we observed (besides what the students said in their comments): messages were written with more care Not everyone knows what an executive summary is Professional business casual attire does not include sneakers, jeans and t-shirts

Career Connection Students caught on pretty quickly Recognize need for advantage in today’s competitive job market Recruiter feedback is positive

Wrap Up The workbook and videos are available now – see your sales rep! Questions?