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Why Are Employers Looking for Soft Skills?
Soft skills refer to personal attributes that enable us to interact effectively with others and perform professionally. According to a report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, employers rank communication, teamwork, and problem-solving among the top five most essential soft skills they look for when hiring new employees.
This is part of the reason private schools focus on soft skills when creating auxiliary programs: they’re interpersonal abilities that put their students ahead of peers who might have the same technical education. Viewed in this way, private schools have a responsibility to prepare students with the essential soft skills that they will need for success in college and beyond.
Developing Soft Skills through Auxiliary Programs
As mentioned above, one way that private and independent schools teach soft skills is through extracurricular enrichment programs such as creative dance, drama, and arts programs. These programs help students develop communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills across a wide range of creative disciplines.
Drama clubs, for example, require students to think on their feet creatively and logically. They must commit to their role, using memorization skills to learn their lines while also developing soft skills like communication, teamwork, and even empathy.
These types of skills are essential in college and beyond, where students are required to communicate effectively and work in tandem with others. Music-based enrichment programs, on the other hand, teach students the art of collaboration. When learning about music, students must listen actively, work together in an ensemble, and focus with discipline as they practice a new instrument.
Later on, the soft skills learned from auxiliary programs will become vital in college and the workforce, where listening, teamwork, and discipline are vital for success.
Soft Skills & Long-Term Success
As mentioned above, soft skills are increasingly seen as a not-so-secret ingredient for success in college and beyond. According to a report by Bloomberg Next and Workday, 72% of employers said that they value soft skills over technical skills when hiring new employees.
Another study published in ResearchGate on soft skills in college students found that today’s graduates lack the essential soft skills that employers seek. The study noted that while graduates may have excellent technical skills, they often lack the soft skills necessary to succeed in the workplace.
Viewed in this way, auxiliary programs that zero in on soft skills are setting the next generation of students up for success—regardless of which fields they’re choosing to pursue.
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