Too Little, Too Late?

Survey: Soft skills. After this week’s readings the subject header in the email caught my eye.
According to the survey introduction:
This survey is to answer the research question: “What soft skills are employers looking for in new graduates?”

Soft skills encompass the personal, interpersonal and professional skills needed to perform well on the job and foster career advancement.

We are asking students, alum, faculty and employers to participate in the survey to gain a broad sense of what people think are important soft skills for the 21st century new employee. The knowledge we gain will assist with identifying how we can improve educational curricula in agriculture, natural resources and related disciplines.
(Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Student and Alumni Survey 2011)
While hard skills encompass reading and math, soft skills are collaborative and social. In Learning: Peering Backward and Looking Forward, Weigal, James, and Gardner (2009) argue, “Most would agree that a well-educated individual should be able to successfully participate in a global economy where money, culture, ideas, and people circulate rapidly; to synthesize and utilize vast rivers of information obtained through a variety of channels (textual, visual, multimediated); to engage with this information across a variety of disciplines; to be comfortable negotiating a range of social connections, including interacting with diverse populations; and to serve as an engaged and responsible member of one's profession and one's communities.”
In order for students to do this, they must have developed the soft skills to collaborate and communicate in diverse range of settings, both mediated and interpersonal. One of the final questions on the survey was “Who is responsible for the development of soft skills, the university or the employer?” I thought to myself, “It might be too late.” Though it is likely that one can develop soft skills later in life, these skills must be the basis of a foundational curriculum within our elementary schools. If we expect our students to compete in a global economy, we must prepare them for this economy from a young age. To this end, we must pursue opportunities for our students to engage in a global exchange of knowledge through social media, provide them with opportunities to work collaboratively using technology and “brick and mortar,” and a structure interdisciplinary experiences that strengthen their transfer of knowledge across contexts. I commend institutions of higher learning for their thoughtful reflection about the role of soft skills in the work place; however, it is time for schools to reflect on the role of soft-skills in preparing students for meaningful democratic and participatory engagement within society.