INTERPRETING SOFT SKILLS
Understanding My Journey: Supporting Soft Skill Development for Young People (UMJ) aims to support young people and their practitioners to ensure that the interventions they take part in have maximum impact in terms of soft skills development (SSD) that can be quantified and built upon. In a nutshell, UMJ is looking to support young people to map their soft skill development and bridge the gap between young person and employer in this context. Where a young person might have soft skills that they have acquired in a non-formal context we are hoping to help them identify and map these in order to highlight their skill set with an employer. The end goal of the project is an app and practitioners guide to aid them with mapping this journey for young people.
A first step in this process was partners conducting a Europe wide mapping of gaps and best practices in this area over six months. A number of focus groups with key stakeholders, combined with desk research and compiling of case studies were presented in national reports from each partner. The UMJ partnership are delighted to announce that the consolidated report with recommendations was launched in Dublin on September 26th 2018 at a round-table stakeholder event.
The full report can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.
Brief Summary
The difficulty in defining soft skills for professionals and young people highlights the importance of the UMJ project. It is agreed by the UMJ partnership that soft skills can have different meanings and interpretations
depending on who you ask and the context in which they operate.
There are some sweeping terms which are easily cited by most individuals such as communication, time management, self-motivation etc. However, the list gets more difficult to define as it gets longer. The partnership agreed to keep the definition of soft skills quite broad at this initial stage of the project as this will allow the findings from the focus groups and surveys with stakeholders, along with the best practice mapping exercise to establish a best practice working understanding of soft skills. This will contribute to the creation of the UMJ toolkit, app and practitioners guide. For the research stages of the UMJ project soft skills were defined as such:
Technical skills will get you a job, while soft skills are those that keep you in a job. Soft skills include, but are not limited to:
• Time & energy management
• Communication skills
• Adaptability
• Problem solving and analytical skills
• Positive attitude
• Work ethic
• Leadership skills (Soft Skill cluster*)
• Teamwork skills (Soft Skill cluster*)
*See point below on Soft Skill clusters
A first step in this process was partners conducting a Europe wide mapping of gaps and best practices in this area over six months. A number of focus groups with key stakeholders, combined with desk research and compiling of case studies were presented in national reports from each partner. The UMJ partnership are delighted to announce that the consolidated report with recommendations was launched in Dublin on September 26th 2018 at a round-table stakeholder event.
The full report can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.
Brief Summary
The difficulty in defining soft skills for professionals and young people highlights the importance of the UMJ project. It is agreed by the UMJ partnership that soft skills can have different meanings and interpretations
depending on who you ask and the context in which they operate.
There are some sweeping terms which are easily cited by most individuals such as communication, time management, self-motivation etc. However, the list gets more difficult to define as it gets longer. The partnership agreed to keep the definition of soft skills quite broad at this initial stage of the project as this will allow the findings from the focus groups and surveys with stakeholders, along with the best practice mapping exercise to establish a best practice working understanding of soft skills. This will contribute to the creation of the UMJ toolkit, app and practitioners guide. For the research stages of the UMJ project soft skills were defined as such:
Technical skills will get you a job, while soft skills are those that keep you in a job. Soft skills include, but are not limited to:
• Time & energy management
• Communication skills
• Adaptability
• Problem solving and analytical skills
• Positive attitude
• Work ethic
• Leadership skills (Soft Skill cluster*)
• Teamwork skills (Soft Skill cluster*)
*See point below on Soft Skill clusters
When defining soft skills there are some considerations to keep in mind:
• Soft Skill clusters; while some soft skills can stand alone, for example time management, other
skills that are commonly listed can be better thought of in terms of soft skill clusters. An example
of such a soft skill cluster is teamwork. Teamwork is a soft skill that many employers consider
crucial to employability but it not a standalone skill. Teamwork is made up of a cluster of skills such
as communication, interpersonal skills, time management, flexibility, self-motivation. It will be
important for the UMJ project to identify soft skills and soft skill clusters and in turn break down
the details of the soft skill clusters. This will support the development of tools which help young
people track their competencies and outline them to employers.
• Soft skill development vs personal development; the UMJ partnership believe there is an important
distinction to be made here in terms of soft skills which are relevant for discussing with potential
employers. Personal development is important to ensure a strong performance in the work place using
skills such as resilience, confidence, ambition etc. However, while these are very important skills in a
work place they are distinct to soft skills which employers traditionally look for in an employability
sense. This is not to discount their importance in helping young people maintain employment as they
are vital skills to ensure a happy working life, however it is often not the remit of employers to ask such
questions of potential employees and so UMJ must identify the difference to ensure the tools created
to support young people’s employability through mapping their soft skills are relevant.
• Cultural and language differences; it must be noted that culture and language can play an important
role in the understanding of certain terms for soft skills. In some instances, a positive word in one
language may be perceived as negative in another. An example of this would be ambition- some would
state that ambition is a good soft skill to have in the work place as it encourages you to strive for better
performance in your role. However, this can be perceived as a negative personality trait in other
languages. This must be taken into consideration for any documenting of soft skills and ensure that
steps are taken to reduce the chances of misinterpretation.
• Common understanding; any soft skills definition that is being used to help young people in their
journey towards employability must be youth friendly and accessible. Young people may not identify
with industry buzzwords such as adaptability, analytical skills etc. Similarly, the definition cannot
alienate potential employers who are reading descriptions of soft skill’s on a CV that they do not
recognise. A common understanding of language used for these terms must be established through the
project research.
• Soft Skill clusters; while some soft skills can stand alone, for example time management, other
skills that are commonly listed can be better thought of in terms of soft skill clusters. An example
of such a soft skill cluster is teamwork. Teamwork is a soft skill that many employers consider
crucial to employability but it not a standalone skill. Teamwork is made up of a cluster of skills such
as communication, interpersonal skills, time management, flexibility, self-motivation. It will be
important for the UMJ project to identify soft skills and soft skill clusters and in turn break down
the details of the soft skill clusters. This will support the development of tools which help young
people track their competencies and outline them to employers.
• Soft skill development vs personal development; the UMJ partnership believe there is an important
distinction to be made here in terms of soft skills which are relevant for discussing with potential
employers. Personal development is important to ensure a strong performance in the work place using
skills such as resilience, confidence, ambition etc. However, while these are very important skills in a
work place they are distinct to soft skills which employers traditionally look for in an employability
sense. This is not to discount their importance in helping young people maintain employment as they
are vital skills to ensure a happy working life, however it is often not the remit of employers to ask such
questions of potential employees and so UMJ must identify the difference to ensure the tools created
to support young people’s employability through mapping their soft skills are relevant.
• Cultural and language differences; it must be noted that culture and language can play an important
role in the understanding of certain terms for soft skills. In some instances, a positive word in one
language may be perceived as negative in another. An example of this would be ambition- some would
state that ambition is a good soft skill to have in the work place as it encourages you to strive for better
performance in your role. However, this can be perceived as a negative personality trait in other
languages. This must be taken into consideration for any documenting of soft skills and ensure that
steps are taken to reduce the chances of misinterpretation.
• Common understanding; any soft skills definition that is being used to help young people in their
journey towards employability must be youth friendly and accessible. Young people may not identify
with industry buzzwords such as adaptability, analytical skills etc. Similarly, the definition cannot
alienate potential employers who are reading descriptions of soft skill’s on a CV that they do not
recognise. A common understanding of language used for these terms must be established through the
project research.
| Interpreting Soft Skills: Research to identify soft skills for young people's personal and professional development |
