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Why Soft Skills Matter: 2010 Job Outlook Beverly Amer, Northern Arizona University
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Backstory Soft Skills are: Traits, attitudes and behaviors rather than technical skills and abilities More important than ever in today’s job market A challenge to teach in “technical” courses!
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What’s the Risk?
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Why Do Soft Skills Matter? Job Outlook 2010 Annual Survey – National Association of Colleges and Employers Across all industries and regions of US College Hiring: DOWN 7% for 2010 grads over last year DOWN 37% in West
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Take Out Your Phones!
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Top Five Majors - West Mechanical Engineering Finance Electrical Engineering Accounting Business Administration/Management
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What Employers Are Looking For Greater emphasis on GPA as an interview screen 75% of employers use a GPA screen Most common cutoff is 3.0 GPA On resume’ – choosing one candidate over another Leadership position Major High GPA (3.0 +) Extra-curricular activities Volunteer work
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What About Work Experience? 76.6% prefer someone with relevant work experience Internships count here
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And Soft Skills? Communication skills top the list of attributes employers desire most Other attributes near the top: Strong work ethic Initiative Interpersonal skills Problem-solving skills Teamwork skills
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Oddly Enough… Attributes employers list as MOST LACKING in college graduates? Communication skills Flexibility/adaptability Tactfulness Initiative Teamwork skills Note: Only 2.3% of employers reported that computer skills are lacking
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Soft Skills Case Study: Communication Skills Scenario: First research report assignment at work Topic: Workplace entrepreneurship Decision: What should I include in my report and e-mail message? Video from Soft Skills at Work
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Meet Jill and Marcus
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Video Critique Task Review Jill and Marcus’ reports and e-mail messages Correct errors How did they do? In a CIS course, where could this be introduced as an assignment?
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Results? Swap papers with another group Assign a grade – how did we do?
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Why I Teach Communication Skills & E-Mail Etiquette “I submitted the wrong one, i will attach it to this file, oh and i put average next to the average cause it didnt make sence not to, and im sorry if i was just meant to tell you and you would forget about that one but i dont know if i will be here in the morning to check my email but ya i will just attach it to this file, well see you tomorrow”
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Soft Skills & Your Students How can you help your students start developing their: Communication skills Interpersonal skills Problem-solving skills Teamwork skills
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Making Room Use the technology you are already teaching Word one-page written summaries PPT presentation in groups Excel spreadsheet analysis to accompany Word reports Entire workbook integrated into course
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What’s the Risk?
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Resources to Help You Soft Skills at Work workbook for students Web site from Cengage Web site www.cengage.com/ct/softskills www.cengage.com/ct/softskills New! “Pro Skills” incorporated into New Perspectives Office 2010 First Course lab manual
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Contact me! beverly.amer@nau.edu
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