ed,
Yes it is. Many students think they have all the soft skills needed, so this is important part of education.
Shelly Crider
Enrique,
Students love personal experience stories....the good, bad, and ugly truth!!
Shelly Crider
Abdul,
Discuss challeneges that the student may run into is a great way to open their minds as well.
Shelly Crider
I think these new generation is lack in professionalism. They need to learn to communicated, be polite and respect each other.
I tell my student they have to respect each other, be on time for class, complete their work on time, learn how to communicate with their fellow students and me as their teacher. They have to learn to use some polite words, "like Please and Thank you". I encourage that in my classroom all the time.
Maria,
There are times when I hear what some people say to the customer and all I can do is shake my head! I heard one employee tell a customer "take a chill pill and I will help you in a few".....how as a customer do you respond to that!!
Shelly Crider
This couse too was also introduced at my school. I feel that this was a much needed class due to the ever changing enviroment of the work place and people outlook on employment. It will assist me in furthering the skills of professionalism in and out the work place for my students. Many of the students don't have the skills or even recongnize the impotance of developing professional skills in order to be a success.
As the professionals working with each student, we need to remember to take every opportunity to address professional skills. For example, tell students when you want to talk with someone, instead of deciding to stop by their office, to call or e-mail them and schedule an appointment. By doing this you and the person you need to speak with can allow adequate time to address your requests. This is the professional way to get some things done.
We establish expectations based on the course syllabus and course ouline.
Brandi ,
It is amazing what soft skills and or professional skills that students really do need and want to learn!
Shelly Crider
Lisa ,
There are many co-workers that we have worked with in past jobs that we would have liked to have shared professional skills with.....am I right??!!
Shelly Crider
I help my students refine their professional skills by being their model and setting a standard for them. For example, I attend and take classes to help me gain more knowledge and be abreast to new challenges and just be a lifelong learner. I uphold certain standards that is ethical.
I feel the same way. Just showing the proper way to dress, act, and react as professional is very important.
I help my students to develop their professional skills by helping them to identify their transferrable skills. For instance, in resume building, I list the skills they currently have and use daily, we relate those characteristics and attributes to the skill set they need as a professional in healthcare, and finally, we take time to write meaningful, properly structured sentences that represent what they do with each skill. Lastly, and definitely most important, we model these characteristics to reinforce the concepts through role-play; professionalism then becomes a part of who they are, not just what they do.
At our school, they started to add a professional course before starting the course proper. This course teaches the new students how to be a professional individual for example: like how to dress up for an interview, making a good resume, learning how to act and respond properly, and also how to respect peers and people around them. I think its a good oppurtunity for students to start to apply professional skills anywhere such as in the classroom and outside. Practice skills constantly make us better.
Since we are a Technical school, our students are mentored not only on their technical skills and abilities, but also on awareness of their clients needs that they are serving as well with management and peers. Being able to communicate effectively is a 1/4 of the full scale and each part plays a specific role to obtaining success. We role play and develop these skills in every part of our factory elective classes.
In my classes, I enhance their professional skills by having them do papers and presentations. When they do their presentations, I grade them not only on content but more strongly on their professional skills such as communication, using correct grammar, tone, eye contact etc. At first they're apprehensive, but the more they present, the better and stronger they become.
We have just begun creating a "Professionalism Rubric" containing an outline of soft skills, respectful/professional behavior and dress, what being an active, attentive listen entails etc. We are hoping to implement this into our next Module start. I am very excited to see that you have been seeing some success with this! How do you ensure that it is actually enforced and used by each teacher. I find that we all have the same issues with students, but yet getting all of the teachers to be on the same page and work together to enforce it is missing. Teaching professionalism and soft skills will never work if its an on-again-off-again type of usage.
Soft skills are very very important for our students. This is what most of our students are seriously missing. They have the clinical skills, but the soft skills are a struggle for them.
Within my classes, I have my students research and present their topics. I grade them not only on content, but more heavily on their soft skills, such as communication, dress, tone, eye contact and delivery. Grammar and speech is very important. When they first start, they are apprehensive, but the more they present, by the end of the term, they are completely confident!!!
It's best if instructors and managers can provide a good role model for students with regard to professionlism. It's difficult to confront students when they are acting unprofessionally, especially if they are defensive and agitated, but it's our duty to guide them.
