Modern Education and Soft Skills
«Soft skills» is a term which has been going around for some time already. They do not have a specific job title, but the work they do is crucial to a person’s ability to succeed in the workplace. People who work alone are becoming increasingly rare these days. Each employee has regular interactions with coworkers, as well as with clients and business partners, to ensure that the company runs smoothly. The ability to negotiate with them, present his case, and effectively explain his position to others is critical for his success. Additionally, the capacity to adjust to new conditions and to new information helps one stay on top of one’s game in both life and one’s professional life.
Soft skills are critical for everyone, from designers to salespeople to programmers to teachers, and it’s important to have them in your arsenal at all times. People need to know how to use a wide variety of services, from writing service like Pro Papers to professional coding platforms. What matters is that you are a business owner, a freelancer, or a university professor. Soft skills are necessary for all people to have.
WHY «TRENDY» DOES NOT MEAN «GOOD»
The educational storm frequently destroys not only the collapsing structures of old conceptions, but also the foundations of common sense, which are vital to the education of children and adolescents. We are currently obsessed with the quest for educational outcomes that highlight both hard and soft talents. This is one of our most recent educational obsessions. Personal characteristics like as creativity, self-initiative, communication, and the ability to work in a group are now often regarded as the most essential consequences of educational experiences, according to many experts. Because of this, it may be concluded that discoveries such as these are of secondary importance to academic knowledge, technical and engineering skills and abilities, and other professional competencies and abilities.
The phrase makes sense, on the one hand, because the majority of modern enterprises and corporations have a working format that need the development of these abilities. However, the phrase does not make sense on the other side. Personal characteristics, on the other hand, cannot make up for a person’s lack of understanding of the multiplication table (rules of physics, language, the periodic table, etc.). However, soft skills are only useful as a supplementary layer on top of hard talents, and they should not be used in their entirety. This is why the slogan “communication is more important than knowledge” (or, if you prefer, “the material aspect”) is a convenient way to excuse “ignorance of the fundamentals”: To surrender to your own self-promotion, on the other hand, is the worst thing you could ever do. In general, soft skills such as the capacity to communicate, present, and present oneself, as well as the ability to build a group of like-minded individuals, have traditionally been considered to be the most significant characteristic of a successful professional.
PREPARING STUDENTS FOR LIFE AS A TASK OF EDUCATION
As a result of the rapid increase in technological uncertainty, there has been a significant increase in interest in soft skills. Indeed, it is impossible to predict which hard skills will be in great demand in the near future, let alone in the distant future. Instead of examining the genuine significance of so-called soft abilities for a person outside of his or her drive, we concentrated on what was visible on the surface. In order to be successful in life, one must be able to change occupations regularly and continue to study throughout one’s whole life. It is expected that rivalry among educational institutions will significantly expand, as will competition between industries and a large increase in foreign competitiveness among workers as a result of these developments. For example, when a fully developed automatic machine translation system is introduced, the specialization of a translator will be replaced by… it is not yet known what new specialty will be introduced. As a result, the level of competition for students will rise to unprecedented levels.
THE REACTION OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM TO THAT
Pre-adaptability refers to a person’s ability to adjust to unforeseen conditions before they occur. Ultimately, this is the fundamental purpose of educational endeavors. In all educational institutions, it should be the major focus of all activities, and it should also be the primary focus of attention. It is the responsibility of the educational system not only to teach a certain subject matter, but also to educate pupils on how to adapt in the face of constant change and uncertain future. The renewal rate is rising at a quicker rate than the rate at which people are learning new things. It is for this reason that educational continuity and the avoidance of narrow specializations are so important. But, at the same time, education’s fundamental character serves as the foundation for future adaptability and flexibility.
HOW TO GET THE NEEDED RESULT
There are a number of essential and critical actions that must be taken in order for the education system to fulfill its goals in today’s world. Let’s have a look at some of the steps we can take.
- No early specialization
50% of your knowledge will become obsolete in the next five years. One can never be certain of one’s own needs in life. Our educational harmful hubris manifests itself in the school’s early specialization in the field of child education.
- Life-long learning
The importance of lifelong education and learning cannot be overstated in the near future. This is the basis of the short-term development plan. At this school, the number of pupils is growing at the cost of kids of all ages and academic levels.
- Broad humanitarization
All training and education information has already been humanized. MIT’s engineering department teaches social and economic disciplines as well as technical skills. So-called social and economic engineers are believed to be unfit for their occupations. Modern engineers also require a strong imagination, which is fostered in the humanities. With this change will come changes in educational institutions and technology.
- Digitalization
A school reader, tablet, or laptop is not a substitute for a traditional textbook. Some of the electronic instructional resources available to students now are merely a slightly enhanced version of what was shown on television in the 1970s and ’80s, according to some.
CONCLUSIONS
No matter how highly qualified an individual is, he or she should have adaptable abilities. They’re necessary, at the very least, if you want to stay in your field: to swiftly pick up on anything new and beneficial that comes along. Being a professional (in the sense of being knowledgeable about your field of work) and being an efficient employee are not the same thing. The capacity to communicate, self-organization, and much of what we discussed in the third card are critical for the second.
However, this does not rule out the requirement for academic knowledge and high levels of skill in the future. They serve as the foundation, the essential element upon which all other characteristics are built.