Soft Skills And Hard Values

"To help researchers, educators and policy makers understand and support the development of 21st Century skills in schools, this edited volume explores the various iterations of 'soft' skills with a particular focus on their implications for values and evaluates ways in which 'soft skills' and 'hard' values can be integrated. Discourse throughout the 21st century has focussed on the changing nature of work, the need for new skill sets and the disruptive effects of new technologies. This has been a neo-liberal discourse that subordinated personal and individual needs to the needs of productive workforce delivering more and more efficiencies linked to higher and higher profits. The solution is often seen to be in the development of a school curriculum that focuses on work-ready skills for an increasingly complex work environment and its demands. Agencies such as OECD and UNESCO highlight the need to link the skills agenda with complementary values. Yet this process is at a very early stage. The proponents of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) for example highlight the impact of new technologies, not just on work but also on the social world. Yet they neglect to explore the values that would be needed in these new disruptive environments. This book takes up that issue and lays out the multiple value systems that are available for this new 21st century world. It is an important resource for policy makers, academics and teachers with responsibility for a new generation"--

To help researchers, educators and policy makers understand and support the development of 21st-century skills in schools, this edited volume explores the various iterations of "soft" skills with a particular focus on their implications for values and evaluates ways in which "soft skills" and "hard" values can be integrated. Discourse throughout the 21st century has focused on the changing nature of work, the need for new skill sets and the disruptive effects of new technologies. This has been a neo-liberal discourse that subordinated personal and individual needs to the needs of a productive workforce delivering more and more efficiencies linked to higher and higher profits. The solution is often seen to be in the development of a school curriculum that focuses on work-ready skills for an increasingly complex work environment and its demands. Agencies such as OECD and UNESCO highlight the need to link the skills agenda with complementary values. Yet this process is at a very early stage. The proponents of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) for example highlight the impact of new technologies, not just on work but also on the social world. Yet they neglect to explore the values that would be needed in these new disruptive environments. This book takes up that issue and lays out the multiple value systems that are available for this new 21st century world. It is an important resource for policy makers, academics and teachers with responsibility for a new generation.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Showing the Value of Soft Skill Programs As organizations rise to meet the challenges of technological innovation, globalization, changing customer needs and perspectives, demographic shifts, and new work arrangements, their mastery of soft skills will likely be the defining difference between thriving and merely surviving. Yet few executives champion the expenditure of resources to develop these critical skills. Why is that and what can be done to change this thinking? For years, managers convinced executives that soft skills could not be measured and that the value of these programs should be taken on faith. Executives no longer buy that argument but demand the same financial impact and accountability from these functions as they do from all other areas of the organization. In Proving the Value of Soft Skills, measurement and evaluation experts Patti Phillips, Jack Phillips, and Rebecca Ray contend that efforts can and should be made to demonstrate the effect of soft skills. They also claim that a proven methodology exists to help practitioners articulate those effects so that stakeholders’ hearts and minds are shifted toward securing support for future efforts. This book reveals how to use the ROI Methodology to clearly show the impact and ROI of soft skills programs. The authors guide readers through an easy-to-apply process that includes: business alignment design evaluation data collection isolation of the program effects cost capture ROI calculations results communication. Use this book to align your programs with organizational strategy, justify or enhance budgets, and build productive business partnerships. Included are job aids, sample plans, and detailed case studies.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive look at the educational scope of life and values that characterize 21st-century Asia, as well as those values shared across cultures. Some values are deeply resonant with the region’s past while others reflect modernity and the new contexts in which Asian societies find themselves. Exploring these values of different types and the way they are constructed in Eastern and Western contexts, the contributors delve into the diversity of religious, moral and social education to promote greater understanding across cultures. While a range of values is identified here, there is no single set of values that can be applied to all people in all contexts. The time has long gone, even for single societies, when values can be imposed. Yet this Handbook emphasizes both the extent and importance of values to individuals and their societies—how they respond to these values may provide the key to better and more caring societies and to better lives for all. Academics and teachers will find this Handbook resourceful because it raises important theoretical issues related to social values and their formation in distinctive contexts and provides novel insights into the diverse educational landscape in Asia. Policymakers and educators will also find this text helpful in learning to think about new ways to improve the quality of people’s lives.

Nurturing Soft Skills introduces the COACH framework to help parents nurture Confident, Outgoing, Articulate, Creative and Happier children, who feel empowered to try new things and believe they can always bounce back if success is not immediate.

USA Today and Wall Street Journal BestSellerAlign, part 1 of a 3-part series, shares four simple steps that transforms the way leaders lead and renew their self-confidence. Through the process Align offers, leaders develop the courage to connect with their team in a meaningful way and start winning together. Through Align, leaders will learn to create alignment within their organization and develop a culture built on employee fulfillment. It shows leaders exactly how to get there. Within Align, leaders learn how to: Foster a leadership style built on loving people Leverage their own natural gifts to become an effective leader Develop a culture built on employee fulfillment Create a company where everyone feels like their winning

A Step-by-Step Guide to Showing the Value of Soft Skill Programs As organizations rise to meet the challenges of technological innovation, globalization, changing customer needs and perspectives, demographic shifts, and new work arrangements, their mastery of soft skills will likely be the defining difference between thriving and merely surviving. Yet few executives champion the expenditure of resources to develop these critical skills. Why is that and what can be done to change this thinking? For years, managers convinced executives that soft skills could not be measured and that the value of these programs should be taken on faith. Executives no longer buy that argument but demand the same financial impact and accountability from these functions as they do from all other areas of the organization. In Proving the Value of Soft Skills , measurement and evaluation experts Patti Phillips, Jack Phillips, and Rebecca Ray contend that efforts can and should be made to demonstrate the effect of soft skills. They also claim that a proven methodology exists to help practitioners articulate those effects so that stakeholders' hearts and minds are shifted toward securing support for future efforts. This book reveals how to use the ROI Methodology to clearly show the impact and ROI of soft skills programs. The authors guide readers through an easy-to-apply process that includes: business alignment design evaluation data collection isolation of the program effects cost capture ROI calculations results communication. Use this book to align your programs with organizational strategy, justify or enhance budgets, and build productive business partnerships. Included are job aids, sample plans, and detailed case studies.

A handbook for trainers, change agents and consultants, or for anyone wanting to know how to achieve organizational change through competency-based techniques. It contains a checklist-style toolkit and structured case studies from organizations of all sizes and from many sectors. It provides models and frameworks for change whilst exploring the relationships between the various change models available.