In our technology-driven world, the value of human connection cannot be underestimated. While mastering technical skills is essential, students must also develop soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking to thrive beyond the classroom. But as pressures increase to deliver future-focused curricula, how can educators ensure that students develop these important life skills alongside their technical expertise?
To explore the role of soft skills in student success and how they can be fostered in schools, EdSurge sat down with Patrick KeeneySenior Director of Product and Partnership Management for Career and Technical Education (CTE) at McGraw Hill School. As the workforce continues to change, Keeney maintains, equipping students with soft skills that can adapt to any career path is more important than ever.
EdSurge: How are soft skills defined? Are there established standards for interpersonal skills in education?
Keeney: People take pride in their technical skills and like to showcase them as competitive differentiators in our careers. In contrast, social skills are not specialized; They are the everyday skills we need to succeed and contribute to our communities, such as communication, problem solving, collaboration and empathy, all of which are important.
We see interpersonal skills mentioned in national and state standards related to career education, as well as in typical school district policies. For example, students are expected to arrive on time and behave appropriately; These are interpersonal skills.
While soft skills are addressed at a superficial level, their critical importance to students' future roles and identities is not emphasized, especially in comparison to technical skills. Social and emotional learning, a close cousin of social skills, is essential but not necessarily career-related. The two skill sets intersect but are not identical.
As a result, there is a significant gap between students' interpersonal skills achievement when they leave high school and what is needed to succeed in the working world and be happy contributors to society.
Why is career and technical education particularly well-suited for developing interpersonal skills?
In the United States, addressing socioeconomic challenges is critical, and one of the most valuable solutions is ensuring that every high school graduate has an idea of their next step, whether it be college, the workforce, or military service. Millions of middle- and high-wage jobs remain unfilled due to a lack of adequately qualified workers, while people living in poverty could potentially fill these positions. Increased emphasis and funding of professional education to address these challenges is perhaps the most important academic move we can make.
Vocational education is a place where interpersonal skills are developed. practically important. Being punctual in a professional environment is essential, as is the way you present yourself. Students are generally unfamiliar with the concept of personal branding and their online presence may be inconsistent with their future goals. These skills are not inherently known, but they can be taught, practiced, and mastered.
What are some effective strategies for integrating interpersonal skills into curriculum and instruction?
If we start with the end in mind and imagine what our students should look like as high school students, college graduates, or in their third year of a professional job right out of high school, we can imagine how the curriculum would need to change. Our focus groups with teachers have shown that having a separate interpersonal skills class is not the answer. Instead, we address social skills in CTE by infusing practice into daily, weekly, and monthly student activities. For example, our high school program Professional explorations has incorporated real-world, industry-specific soft skills exercises, including applied mathematics, graphic literacy, and reading comprehension.
Technical career student organizations (CTSO) as FFA, NTHS, HOSA, SkillsUSA and DECA They involve hundreds of thousands of students annually. Its national conferences and competitions, such as the SkillsUSA event in Atlanta with 10,000 students competing in approximately 100 different areas, provide tangible examples of what students with well-developed interpersonal skills look like. These events are repeated several times a year in different organizations. These organizations and the students who benefit from them can serve as models for what we aim to achieve if we keep the end goal in mind.
How does project-based learning support the development of interpersonal skills?
Project-based learning (PBL) inherently infuses interpersonal skills into its DNA and can be an effective methodology for teachers and students in any classroom, not just professional education. PBL can be seen as projects linked to learning or as a method where students solve real-world problems. In both cases, students must use social skills such as communication, collaboration and presentation. Not all students will excel in all social skills, which is where collaboration becomes crucial.
Compared to isolated multiple-choice exams, project-based learning offers authentic opportunities that reflect real-life experiences. Addresses the common student question “Where will I use this?” demonstrating practical applications of knowledge.
What resources and support do teachers need to effectively incorporate interpersonal skills instruction into their classrooms?
In the case of project-based learning, providing teachers with rubrics that evaluate not only the outcome of the project but also the quality of students' interactions during the project is a small but important change. Additionally, it is essential to develop a curriculum that includes meaningful reflection and feedback, as it is fertile ground for the development of interpersonal skills. Providing role models, examples and simulations can support this process.
Assessment could take various forms, including (assessments in) project-based learning, simulations, and scenario-based testing. At McGraw Hill, team members are dedicated to incorporating social skills activities into our professional education courses and providing CTE educators, who often have unique and varied backgrounds, with robust support materials. For example, the digital teaching guide for Professional explorations includes presentation materials, discussion topics, pre-made assessments, question banks, and project-based learning resources for teachers to deliver content in a pedagogically sound way.
As curriculum providers, we have more work to do to support teachers with soft skills. In an ideal world, there would be a technological environment with a hierarchy of standards that reflect skills. Someday I hope to see a system that helps all teachers, everywhere, measure and track student growth in these areas and respond to that data with the right support.
