In the
view of one university president, higher-education institutions need to
incorporate more soft skills into formal instruction in order to better prepare
well-rounded students for the work world after graduation.
“Critical
thinking, complex problem solving, empathy, creativity, and communication
skills are all necessary in today’s work environment,” Gloria Cordes Larson,
president of Bentley University, said in an email exchange with Inside Higher Education. “This is why
more and more schools are finding creative ways to integrate the arts and
sciences with professional and technical skills. Employers are point-blank
telling us they need college graduates who have mastered soft skills in
addition to the hard, industry-specific technical skills.”
Larson
said college classes should give students more practical experience—through
internships, immersion classes with corporations, community service, or other
means—and introduce them to technologies relevant in their chosen fields, but
“it all begins with an approach that combines left-brain and right-brain
thinking.”
She
noted that Bentley and other universities offer programs designed to enable
students to major in both business/technical fields and liberal-arts studies,
which helps them develop analytical and communication skills.
Getting
first-year students involved in campus career services right away, rather than
waiting until their senior year when they’re starting to apply for jobs, is
also important, she stressed.
