What do Soft Skills Have to do with Language?

1. What do Soft Skills Have to do With Language? Tuula Lindholm, Algonquin College, Ottawa ©Lindholm, 2010 Reproduction allowed by permission of author only for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the copyright statement appears on all materials and that prior permission is granted by author

5. What are Soft Skills? Negotiation Skills & Personal Responsibility Interpersonal Communication Skills Teamwork Management of Time & Personal Life Performance Expectations Customer Service Ability to communicate (language) is deeply imbedded in these soft skills. Finding a job and keeping it require use of many soft skills that are often hidden and need to be made more explicit

7. How Did You Do? What is required to make an Elevator Speech? Para phrasing What to include Cultural know-how What to leave out Why? How? Creating impressions Thinking quickly For whom?

10. What is language and what is behaviour? Do we teach? How to answer “tell me about yourself” by having an “elevator speech” ready, for example Do we teach? How to resolve differences, using emotional intelligence (EQ) skills and other resources Do we teach? Understanding who the reader is what h/she really needs to know about the candidate Cover letter Job Interview Solving conflicts

11. Teaching OSL involves… Knowing more about the sector’s work culture Connecting dots between behaviour and language Creating opportunities for students to grow personally Bringing the workplace into the classroom Shifting more responsibility for outcomes to students Evaluating progress more creatively

12. Bridging Gaps not Just Careers Language Subject Studies Employment Preparation Career Transitioning ongoing ongoing Left to the end and often not planned well

14. What do Students Say? “ I think what got me my job in the interview was when I was able to show I could summarize my past career in India in 30 seconds! The hiring team was impressed.” Dilip, a civil engineer “ I always thought my degree in pharmacy was all I needed in Canada. Didn’t understand that I needed to express empathy and talk with the customers about their medicine.” Rashida, an international pharmacy grad “ I had no idea what the cover letter really means! I tried to cram my resume in it, so no wonder no one called me for an interview!” -- Mohammad, an accountant