University graduates need to be equipped with soft skills

A study by Australian economists, published in the journal Oxford Economic Papers, claims to provide the first empirical evidence that university education generates non-cognitive skills thought to be essential for a continuously changing and globally expanding labour market. The study focused on the ‘big five’ personality traits – emotional stability (emotional regulation), openness to experience (open-mindedness), conscientiousness (task performance), extraversion (sociability or engaging with others) and agreeableness (collaboration). All are considered vital to workplace functioning and broader society. In an era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, universities around the world are becoming more concerned with employability and life skills or soft skills that employers value much. Accordingly, they are designing education systems around the norms of the industrial society. Today’s educators think that future needs to be more integrated – across the disciplines – help students think like a scientist and, at the same time, a historian.

Andreas Schleicher, director of education at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said that to change learning systems to integrate 21st-century skills (global skills) would require a revision to the current utilitarian view of education. Bangladeshi academics are now seriously thinking of introducing outcome-based curricula at universities so that students can know the outcomes of what they study or learn from a particular course. But, at the same time, they need to address the artificial dichotomy between knowledge and skills.

The role of social and emotional skills is becoming very important in a fast-changing and diverse world. A faster pace of living and a shift to urban environments means people need to engage with new ways of thinking, working and new people. The diverse populations and the dismantling of traditional social networks place additional emphasis on people’s sense of trust, cooperation and compassion. Social and emotional skills determine how well people adjust to their environment and how much they achieve in their lives. But the development of these skills is important not only for the well-being of individuals, but also for wider communities and societies as a whole.

Now the question remains – do our universities really focus on ‘social and emotional’ skills called ‘soft’ skills? This is unfortunate that we still follow a traditional system of assessing a student’s performance or skills through conventional written examinations. But it –known as summative assessment –hardly helps to measure a student’s skills that they develop throughout the university life. And due to lack of these skills, many of the university graduates do struggle to be considered suitable for the competitive job market. We let our students learn academic knowledge but do not encourage them to learn about themselves in society. We need to give them opportunities to use what they have learnt before they enter the job market – professional world.

The ability of a responsible and educated citizen to adjust to different situations/cultures, respect for others and work well as a team is imperative. Taking personal and collective responsibility is increasingly becoming the hallmark of a well-functioning society. Ideological polarization and social tensions are increasing the need for tolerance and respect, empathy and generosity, and the ability to cooperate in order to achieve and protect the common good.

Cognitive skills, such as general intelligence, have long been considered the most important determinants of employment success. However, the recent empirical evidences are pointing towards social and emotional skills directly affecting a variety of job outcomes - such as occupational status and income - on top of their indirect effect through educational outcomes. Social and emotional skills can be equally, and in some cases even more important, than cognitive skills in determining future employment. In fact, social and emotional skills are almost as influential as cognitive skills for students.

Our education system must prepare students for their future. Nowadays, digitization connects people, cities and continents to bring together a majority of the world’s population in ways that vastly increases the individual and collective potential. But the same forces have also made the world more volatile, complex, and precarious. The rolling processes of automation, hollowing out jobs, particularly for routine tasks, have radically altered the nature of work and life and thus the skills that are needed for success. For those with the right human capacities, this is liberating and exciting. But for those who are insufficiently prepared, it can mean the scourge of vulnerable and insecure work, and life without prospects.

However, preparing students with technical or academic skills alone will not be enough for them to achieve success, connectedness and well-being whatever endeavours they wish to pursue. Social and emotional skills such as perseverance, empathy, mindfulness, courage or leadership are central to this. We are born with what political scientist Robert Putnam terms bonding social capital, a sense of belonging to our family or other people with shared experiences, cultural norms, common purposes or pursuits. But it requires deliberate and concerted efforts to create the kind of binding social capital through which we can share experiences, ideas and innovation and build a shared understanding among groups with diverse cultures, experiences and interests.

The ‘big five’ model popularly known as ‘big five personality traits’ is also comprehensive enough to include the majority of social and emotional skills studied or researched to date. There is also extensive evidence that the ‘big five’ domains/traits can be generalized across cultures and nations. Over the past years, social and emotional skills have been rising on the education policy agenda and also in the public discourse or debate. But for the majority of students, their development remains a matter of luck, depending on whether this is a priority for their teachers or their institutions. A major setback is the dearth of reliable metrics, in this field, that allow educators and policymakers to make progress visible and to address the shortcomings. Nevertheless, our universities need to rethink the curricula and incorporate ‘social and emotional’ skills to prepare students or graduates for the demands of the 21st-century world.

The writer is associate professor and chair of the Department of English at Stamford University Bangladesh. He can be reached at nahidneazy@yahoo.com.