It’d be easier to ask, “What aren’t they good for?”
It wouldn’t be farfetched to say that soft skills enrich our lives in every aspect. Sure, that might sound like an exaggeration, but soft skills cover so much of our daily lives that they may as well be called ‘essential skills’.
Whether it’s about confidence, communication, team work, problem solving, stress, soft skills covers them all. Honestly speaking, the term ‘soft skills’ is kind of cheating with how much of an umbrella term it truly is, but that’s just how it is.
Soft skills are all the skills which employers look for, which also happens to be everything we do on a daily basis. That being said, just because we talk to others on a daily basis, doesn’t necessarily mean we always get the opportunity to refine our communication skills. Perhaps you’re only talking to people you’re familiar with, or only in an informal setting, maybe you’ve never spoken in front of a group, these are all just examples of opportunities which we offer at Aveea in just the scope of communication.
KS1 and KS2 working in tandem
Now it’s not like schools don’t give the students the opportunity to work with younger and older students, but it’s certainly a rare opportunity due to the curriculum, which is a huge shame. But that’s why recently, at Aveea, we sometimes run sessions with KS1 and KS2 in the same classes. There’s nothing quite like seeing students with the chance to flex all the skills they’ve learnt, while younger students watch and absorb in awe.
Perhaps the KS2 students pick up some more advanced details from the session, maybe they pick them up faster, the principals of the session are the same throughout for both KS1 and KS2, which means that they’re able to lend a hand with their newly gained skills and knowledge immediately.
KS1 students get a personal teacher for details they might not quite grasp, KS2 students get to practise and revise what they’ve just learnt, it’s truly a win-win situation.
The confidence to succeed and to fail
Presenting to a group of people can be a great way to learn. We’ve all had that moment when we’re surprised we succeeded, but it isn’t until we think, “Wait, how did that work?”, that we truly learn. Perhaps we chose to use 6 wheels on a design, whereas everyone else who failed used 4 wheels, why is that? When we’re presenting our design to a group, are we just going to say, “We used 6 because we felt like it”?
Of course it’d be better if you knew the answer as to why it worked, but it’s completely fine even if you didn’t. Maybe now that you know it works, you can rationalise why it works, or now that you’ve pointed out that you don’t actually know why, someone can teach you.
Of course presenting to a large number of people is daunting, it might be the cause of many waterworks, but it truly is a valuable experience to have and is worth the challenges one faces while coming to terms with it. And while presenting a successful idea is one thing, presenting a failure is an entirely different beast.
To be able to build up the resilience to not only fail, but present the failure, and turn the experience into something beneficial, is truly a goal to aspire for. That’s why we try to instil this resilience, these soft skills, into pupils during their time at Aveea Academy, and it’s possible for you to do the same at home!
What can you do to help your child with soft skills?
Open communication! What better place to start than with open communication? Whether it’s simply asking more questions and listening, or going out of your way to start activities involving it, it’s always going to be good practice for both parties involved! Besides, aren’t you just a bit curious about what they’ve been up to, it’s a great time to find out.
Opportunities for problem solving! Sometimes it can be easy to fall into the trap of allowing others to coast through life. We need to face challenges to grow! Whether that’s real or artificial, it doesn’t matter. Creating small challenges can be a great means of practice for when a real challenge in life comes up.
Simply being a positive role model! I think we can all agree that a positive attitude is healthy for all of us. Being around positivity is just a great environment all around, if your positivity is contagious, all the better! Did you know, if you smile at someone, that triggers an automatic response in them to smile back?
Try it out! Spread the positivity!
