Transcript Beyond the Muddle: What are Soft Skills or Workplace Competencies?

October 6, 2014
Workforce Connections
Bonnie Politz
Independent Consultant
Clare Ignatowski
Senior Advisor, Youth & Workforce Development, USAID
Obed Diener
Youth and Workforce Specialist, FHI360
Laura Lippman
Director, Education Program, Child Trends
Rachel Carney
Research Assistant, Youth Development, Child Trends
Kristin Anderson Moore
Senior Scholar and Director, Youth Development, Child Trends
About Child Trends
Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center that improves the
lives and prospects of children and youth by conducting high-quality
research and sharing the resulting knowledge with practitioners and
policymakers.
We . . .
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
take a whole child/youth approach
study youth in the real world
want youth to flourish
value objectivity and rigor
pursue knowledge development and knowledge transfer
childtrends.org
Motivation
•
Obtaining employment and becoming
financially independent is a critical component
in the successful transition to adulthood.
•
Yet, 75 million youth around the world are unemployed.
•
Individual factors contribute to youth unemployment including
technical, academic, and “soft skills”.
•
Currently, there is a lack of consensus on which soft skills are the best
investments for improving youth workforce outcomes, and how these
skills are defined.
•
To this end, Child Trends seeks to answer the question,
“What soft skills are most
important for workforce success?”
Contextual Factors
Framework for Linking Individual Skills to
Workforce Success
Employment
Family
Schools
Community
Performance
& Promotion
Policies
Job Availability
Accessibility
Soft Skills
Income
Training
Violence or war
Academic Skills
Entrepreneurship
Technical Skills
Methodology
• Reviewing the literature
• Asking experts & implementers
• Asking for your input today!
• Asking youth and employers
• Drawing conclusions across sources and perspectives:
positive youth development, psychology, economics,
employers, organizational development, and workforce
development programming
Soft Skills
Literature
Empirical
studies
Employer
Surveys
Consensus
Projects
Other
literature
Considerations in Selection
Key foundational competencies
for workforce success
should:
• Predict workforce outcomes
• Be applicable across contexts
and sectors
• Be malleable
Important for
specific groups,
sectors, and
contexts
Important for
all sectors,
ages,
contexts
What do you think are the most
important foundational competencies
for workforce success?
Top Foundational Competencies
Across All Workforce Outcomes
• Communication
• Problem solving/critical thinking/decision
making
• Conscientiousness
• Teamwork
• Social competence
• Leadership
• Positive self-concept
• Extraversion
• Self-motivation
• “Hardworking” and Dependability
• Emotional stability [Neuroticism]
Communication
Problem solving,…
Conscientiousness
Teamwork
Social competence
Leadership
Emotional stability
Consensus projects
Positive self-concept
Empirical studies
Hard working and…
Employer survey
Self-motivation
Other literature
Extraversion
0
20
40
60
80
Number of positive findings
Teamwork
Positive attitude
Professionalism
Leadership
Hardworking and
dependability
Integrity, ethics
Problem solving,
critical thinking,
decision making
Social competence
Emotional
stability
Communication
Teamwork
Self-control
Self-motivation
Social competence
Leadership
Planful-ness,
Management
Positive selfconcept
Responsibility
Positive selfconcept
Social competence
Extraversion
Emotional stability
Conscientiousness
Self-control
Leadership
Openness to
experience
Hardworking and
dependability
Entrepreneurship
Problem solving,
critical thinking,
decision making
Conscientiousness
Increased wages/Income
Communication
Performance/Promotion
Employment
Top Foundational Competencies by
Workforce Outcome
Agreeableness
Extraversion
Openness to
experience
Conscientiousness
Emotional stability
Initiative taking
Social competence
Communication
Self-motivation
Adaptability
Teamwork
Positive attitude
Professionalism
Leadership
Hardworking and
dependability
Integrity, ethics
Problem solving,
critical thinking,
decision making
Social competence
Emotional
stability
Communication
Teamwork
Self-control
Self-motivation
Social competence
Leadership
Planful-ness,
Management
Positive selfconcept
Responsibility
Positive selfconcept
Social competence
Extraversion
Emotional stability
Conscientiousness
Entrepreneurship
Problem solving,
critical thinking,
decision making
Conscientiousness
Increased wages/Income
Communication
Performance/Promotion
Employment
Top Foundational Competencies by
Workforce Outcome
Agreeableness
Extraversion
Openness to
experience
Conscientiousness
Emotional stability
Initiative taking
Self-control
Social competence
Leadership
Communication
Openness to
experience
Self-motivation
Hardworking and
dependability
Adaptability
Other Competencies from
Experts
• Assertiveness
• Future or goal
orientation
• Creativity
• Learning or growth
orientation
• Empathy
Questions for small group discussion:
1. Are these the key competencies for workforce
success?
 Are any missing? Should any be dropped?
 Are they in the right order?
2. How and where are these competencies
relevant (or not relevant) to workforce success
in various contexts?
3. Can training improve these competencies
within your programs?
 Can these be taught within your programs?
 Are there certain competencies that are more
difficult to develop?
Next Steps
• Conduct youth focus groups and surveys of
employers
• Incorporate input from today and from a
symposium in December
• Final white paper on key foundational
workforce competencies by early 2015
• Complete a review of existing measures of
these competencies in 2015
Thank you!
www.childtrends.org
Contact us:
Laura Lippman
[email protected]
www.childtrends.org/WhatWorks
Kristin Anderson Moore
[email protected]
Rachel Carney
[email protected]
twitter/childtrends
www.facebook.com/childtrends
Contact us
Obed Diener | Technical Specialist | FHI 360
[email protected] | +1.202.464.3913
www.wfconnections.org