Hard Skills vs Soft Skills
I was surprised to learn in this course that a harvard study has shown that soft people skills far outweigh hard skills. I answered that question as 50%- 50%. I teach at a vocational college where hard skills play a larger role in teaching.I have no problem with the soft skills as I have been teaching for 15 yrs.still if i am not a expert in the hard skills ( cooking ) than the soft skills don't matter as much.
Do others in vocational colleges agree?
Marco,
That is a great question. Maybe hard skills and soft skills have an equal amount of importance in specific jobs? Maybe Hard Skills outweigh Soft Skills in specific jobs?
Philip Campbell
I was not surprised to see that soft skills carried more weight than hard skills. However, I do see instructors (myself included) putting more time and effort into expanding their hard skills. It is rare to have a discussion about soft skills and how to ipmrove them.
Thank you for the nice topic I think to be good at hard skills usually takes smarts or IQ (also known as your left brain-the logical center). To be good at soft skills usually takes Emotional Intelligence or EQ (also known as your right brain- the emotional center). Examples of hard skills include math, physics, accounting, programming, finance, biology, chemistry, statistics, etc…
Daniel,
I agree with you as many probably will that the concentration in class is usually on hard skills. What we need to do is to try to incorporate those soft skills in with the hard skills.
Philip Campbell
As a math and science instructor in a medical career college hard skills are essential, but without soft skills the instruction of the material would be ineffective. Soft skills are not just eassential in the classroom, but also essential outside of class when dealing with student issues that threaten the success of their goals. In support, we previously had a campus director who took over hiring instructors, she based her decisions primarily on hard skills and it was a disater for the school and the students.
Being in an automtive training facility it is extremely important to have the hard skills. However I have found that if your soft skills are lacking all the technical knowledge in the world will not overcome the barriers that your build to learning. You can't teach them if you can't reach them.
Anthony,
good point. The soft skills still help to dive the hard skills.
Philip Campbell
