Students learn a lot of things in college. At least, faculty and staff HOPE they
do! One category of knowledge is called hard
skills and is in the description of the class on the student’s
schedule: Math 140, History 201,
Psychology 120 – in other words, mathematics, history, and psychology. Hard skills also include the name of the
career students choose to enter, such as teaching, engineering, welding,
nursing, etc. Job descriptions for open
positions in these fields often list hard skills specific to that
profession. While sometimes there are
proficiencies in hard skills shared across professions, many types of
employment have a list that is unique.
Our students come here to acquire the hard skills that will
get them a job in the field they want to enter.
An ability to develop increasingly difficult or higher-level hard skills
can take a person through years of schooling after high school, and a person
good at this can often get several advanced degrees. A wall full of diplomas will probably get a
person hired, but good soft skills will keep a person working. This is the other type of knowledge we hope
students are developing during their time here.
Soft skills are abilities like time and project management, empathy,
impulse control, emotional intelligence, cooperation, responsibility, and
motivation. These skills can be
transferred to any field of work and also to one’s personal life. Good soft skills make for good team players, whether
that team is a work group of six energy rate specialists or a couple in a
romantic relationship. No employee wants
to collaborate with someone who is unable to work effectively with other
people, and very few individuals can sustain long-term relationships with that
person either.
Position announcements often give a more detailed
description of the hard skills needed to fill an opening, but if you look
closely at the requirements, you’ll see the soft skills in there as well. Here’s an excerpt for job requirements for a community
college librarian, with the soft skills highlighted (by me) i
Students universally hate team projects. I hated team projects when I was a student,
that’s for sure. But as I’ve told dozens
of students, there is no job in existence in which you don’t have to deal with
people, so developing good soft skills in college is just one more way we
prepare our students for success in the workplace, and in their personal lives
as well.
By, Sue Andrus
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