Future First Global Project Lead, Ján Michalko, looks at the importance of so-called ‘soft skills’ for young people as they enter the jobs market and how schools should do more to foster them.
Country leaders want their people to be efficient and effective workers. They need people to be trained to drive economic growth and excel in the fourth industrial revolution that we are in. And so as a result, our education assessments zoom in on young people’s technical skills and we rank schools according to this specific economic worldview. But what often falls to the side-lines are our connections; our ability to meaningfully relate to one another and function in nurturing communities.
Getting that first job
During the final year of my PhD at SOAS, I worked with students, who wanted help with their cover letters and CVs. Once a week I would meet young SOASians, who came to the Careers Centre for extra help as they tried to make it into the job market. Understandably, it was a daunting prospect for many of them.
In the UK, the competition for entry-level jobs is tough and the expectations are high. Young people face nearly double the average unemployment rates as employers tend to prefer people with experience and track record – a safe pair of hands with innovative ideas nonetheless.
This approach to hiring young people is even more pronounced in other countries, including many where we work. Structural challenges cause a dearth of formal jobs and increased hesitation towards hiring inexperienced youth. In addition, for those young womxn and men who lack any safety nets, or who face barriers such as racism or islamophobia, getting a source of income becomes stressful to the point of becoming paralysing and disempowering.
We got a good sense of this challenging competition that young people face first hand recently. Our organisation received more than 250 applications for a junior role that opened in our team as we grow with new projects. What an overwhelming interest in the work of our small organisation!
We ultimately had to reject many brilliant young womxn and men, all passionate about social change around the world. As we could only base our decisions on the information in the CVs and cover letters, we were often unable to ascertain how people would relate to our partner organisations around the world or the teachers and learners we visit from Uganda to Pakistan.
To some applicants, it might seem too obvious to include so-called soft skills in their CVs these days: isn’t it something we all do as human beings? We have relationships, we communicate with others that are different from us, and we work in teams. So surely, it is the technical specialism that matters.
Well, it is not so straightforward.
When schools forget to focus on relationships
One piece of advice I frequently shared with young SOAS job seekers and what we shared with applicants here, was to tease out of their experience concrete evidence that showed transferable skills, which they could use in their desired jobs. Many CVs that I reviewed listed excellent degrees, internships or summer jobs. They communicated ability to do research or write social media posts or skills in time management or leadership. Often, however, they were thin on evidence to prove their social skills.
Within the current education system, schools are being pushed away from seeing themselves as social institutions. Instead of seeing themselves as places where young people develop the sense of who they are, as they interact with others, schools become primarily places where technical knowledge is imparted onto young minds. That’s one of the key messages I learnt at the Relationships Foundation annual conference.
As a result of this approach, we see the lack of meaningful relationships, diminished sense of community around schools and social exclusion which have negative impacts on young people’s mental health and wellbeing as well as educational attainment in both short and long term.
Within such education systems, schooling is primarily a tool for economic growth and less a means of helping young people thrive in society – in a complex web of relationships that are globalized and diverse.
Rankings and assessments become alpha and omega and focus on ‘hard’ technical skills, rather than nurturing one’s abilities in building relationships and engaging with others. The fact that these skills are feminized by being called ‘soft’, partially helps to explain their historical underappreciation. And so it is no wonder that once young people apply for those entry-level jobs, their CVs or cover letters reflect these trends.
This is not to say that achieving high-quality schooling in various subjects is not important. However, it is an indication that our thinking around schools, education and employment needs re-balancing.
A better balance: social connections and relevant experience
We believe that bringing alumni into the schooling process can be one way of achieving this. By formalising and structuring alumni networks, schools can enhance young people’s opportunities to socialise, build relationships and learn how to engage with others, especially people with whom they have some things in common and who can inspire and advise them.
Alumni networks can also facilitate ‘meaningful encounters’ with the world of work. Education and Employment finds that such encounters improve young people’s access to information about the labour market, which are realistic and authentic. As this study shows, it is especially impactful for disadvantaged young womxn and men for whom schools can bridge the socio-economic disadvantage from their home context.
While many private schools have been building and nurturing alumni connections, it is important that we do not leave young people in low-resourced, state schools behind, so that existing inequalities in education and employment do not continue to polarise our societies further.
And so, if we get the alumni networks right, we can create a win-win situation: we can help schools embrace their socialising responsibilities by creating communities around them, while at the same time providing insights into the world of work. Such synergy can make those ever-important social skills and abilities to relate a more stable presence in young people’s lives as they transition into employment.