We are living in a time of great and constant changes that affect all spheres of life. This context affects people, institutions, the world of production, work and generates in people a feeling of helplessness (the person's state of intense anxiety and uncertainty since they cannot glimpse their future). Faced with this reality, three ways can be adopted: ignore the changes and leave their fate to chance; be aware, but freeze and suffer. In both cases, these attitudes do not contribute to evading anxiety or pessimism. The third option is to be proactive, seeking to inform, educate and train.
Technological knowledge is provided by formal and informal training, but tends to lose updating rapidly. On the other hand, if people possess soft interpersonal skills, they are eternal and constant. They are the most valued by employers, but they are very difficult to acquire, require years to develop and favorable conditions for application, which means that they are valued and highly coveted when it comes to filling jobs.
Development of soft skills
In some countries, the curricula of the first educational levels have already incorporated the development of soft skills, displacing the data to a plane of utilitarian elements at the service of situations that require putting those skills into practice. The higher levels of education, although in many institutions they use soft skills through problem solving, they focus on the transmission of information.
In Latin America, the development of skills is not present in their curricula, which have remained unchanged for 100 years. To endow employability, education is limited to general guidance at the middle level, at tertiary and university levels they are limited to the transmission of technical knowledge and skill sets for an occupation. Their curricula foresee a duration of the careers between four and six years in duration, currently considered too extensive, based on information that is often outdated or, in the best of cases, will be excluded for when in education they must occupy a job.Both basic and higher education delegate the training and development of soft skills to families and the community, which does not guarantee that students have them to perform in the world of work and in their personal lives.
Soft skills are numerous, but some are especially valued in the job market. These skills can be divided into General and Specific Soft Skills. The former are and will be valued in all types of occupation. The second will be those required in highly qualified positions.
GENERAL SOFT SKILLS
- Productive habits: following a routine, keeping an agenda, being skillful with the computer. Punctuality Integrity: being honest with yourself and with others, recognizing mistakes, being objective, responsible. Have personal values: ethical behaviors Communication: oral, written, ability to make presentations, listening skills Courtesy: manners appropriate to the situation and context, be respectful and keep the cordial ways. Be receptive to the teachings Interpersonal skills: friendly, pleasant, have empathy Have self-control: patience, sociability, social skills Responsibility: be trustworthy, take charge Work ethic: be willing, diligent, motivated, be punctual, not missing. Have empathy Personal security: be reliable in the way you work Respect for the opinions of others Flexibility and adaptability Pressure tolerance Assertiveness
SPECIAL SOFT SKILLS
- Empathy: putting yourself in the place of others Respect for opinions Assertiveness: ability to give information appropriately and at the right time Flexibility: adapt to different circumstances Interpersonal skills: be cordial, friendly, have a sense of humor Professionalism: be formal, dress appropriately, have an appropriate appearance Adaptability Ease of communication Effective listening Adaptation to change Ability to solve problems Spirit of service
SPECIAL SKILLS FOR JOBS
- Ethics: norms and values that regulate the correct action Adaptability: to the rapid changes in technology, to diverse contexts Interpersonal skills to work in networks and at a distance with partners in different cultures and languages Having self-discipline: given that the type of work is very Variable, poorly regulated and with very flexible practices Interdisciplinary teamwork Curiosity: to find solutions to problems that arise Self- motivation: initiative, impulse Having self-confidence Being receptive to novelties Professionalism Flexibility: willingness to change, continuous learningCreativity: in the ways of communicating information Virtual collaboration Competence in logical-mathematical thinking Assertiveness Computational thinking: ability to translate large amounts of data into abstract concepts. Being able to order the concepts, rank them and select them to make sense of them.
THE SKILLS THAT THE JOBS WILL REQUIRE
The reports on the labor fields that will have more expansion in the future are those related to the care of children and the elderly. In this regard, the following Soft Skills are considered highly valued:
- Interpersonal intelligence Communication Emotional intelligence Creativity Adaptability Communication Courtesy Flexibility Receptivity Self-control Professionalism
SKILLS TO PERFORM IN THE CREATIVE FIELD
This field requires that people possess an innate ability combined with a special sensitivity such as a privileged ear, ability to project ideas, imagination.
- Creativity: it is the ability to generate new ideas, new concepts, new associations between ideas and known concepts, to be able to give original solutions to challenges. Constructive imagination: it is a skill of cognition that produces divergent thinking. It is complex because it encompasses various mental processes. Entrepreneurial spirit: although it is based on an innate capacity, it requires spaces that foster it and the self-stimulation of the person to develop fully. Acceptance of criticism and self-criticism Tenacity and practice. Design mentality: it is the ability to embody ideas. Requires practice and knowledge Learn to learnAutonomy and personal initiative critically Motivation
Skills required to exercise leadership
- Ethics: norms, values and principles that regulate their actions both in their personal life and in their professional performance. Responsibility: respond to the demands of the position, in time and form Empathy Self- motivation Loyalty Initiative Tolerance of diversity Communication Flexibility Active listening Be receptive Have self-control Have self- confidence Accept criticism Adaptive thinking: allow to give answers and non-routine solutions Be assertive: respond assertively in different contexts Literacy in new media Transdisciplinarity: ability to understand concepts through gazes provided by different areas of knowledge
The changes brought about by artificial intelligence, automation and computing are getting bigger, faster, more violent, much more traumatic, more linked to an environment of great uncertainty, of a competitiveness that had not been seen before, motivated by globalization that imposes all kinds of demands on organizations.
To occupy jobs in the labor field in the future, although years of training and academic education will be required, these will lose the specific weight in the assignment of the position, acquiring more relevance emotional intelligence and the availability of soft skills and abilities. Hard knowledge provides solutions to technical problems, but critical problems are not solved with hard knowledge, but require an adaptive baggage like Soft Skills provide.
These are acquired and developed, first of all, in the family, the physical and social environment, the worldview of the place where one lives and especially in the educational institutions in which people put into practice most of their abilities and develop them. The world of work in which they operate are areas of crucial importance for the development of skills.
The Soft Skills constitute the greatest flow of the labor value that a person has because the knowledge of the specific job will change rapidly and if he has developed the learning capacity he will be able to overcome this limitation. On the contrary, developing soft skills and abilities requires years of life in a context that facilitates them.
Educating for the future means: investing the load that hard knowledge has on the curricula and increasing situations that allow to detect the aptitudes, abilities, competences and attitudes of the students. For this, learning situations will be created in which people must apply, develop, practice and expose the Soft Skills.
