86659 - Soft Skills to be Effective at Work - Cesena

Learning outcomes

The course intends to increase students' awareness of the importance of soft skills in work contexts and aims to improve their knowledge of the strategies for developing and enhancing them. Both soft and technical skills are essential to face efficiently with challenges related to the labour market entry (first at all, the recruitment and selection process) and the development of their future career.

The specific objectives of the course are:

• Increasing awareness of the role played by soft skills in entering the labour market;
• Recognizing the personal soft skills and their fit with different contexts and situations;
• Developing the ability to assessment the personal soft skills;
• Promoting the development and/or enhancement of the soft skills;
• Planning specific strategies for enhancing the soft skills.

Course contents

The five classes (18 hours) will be focused on the following three areas:

• analysing/understanding the situation, which includes the ability to gather information/data, to analyse and interpret circumstances and relationships, and to process this information/data in order to identify a proper solution;
• addressing/solving the problems, which is the ability to plan, manage and implement a targeted action plan, to make consistent decisions and to effectively manage changes. This area is further developed through the attendance of the MOOC named "Change management";
• collaborating/interacting with others, which includes the ability of self-presentation, working within teams, interacting effectively with others, being aware of inter-individual dynamics and conflict management.
  

Moreover, students will be involved in e-learning activities (duration: 6 hours) aimed at encouraging active participation, self-awareness and self-assessment of the soft skills and their importance for job placement.

This e-learning activity will include:

• Videos of some interviews with different figures (e.g., HR Directors of large companies) of the importance of soft skills to achieve in the laboru market;
• Questionnaires for soft skills self-assessment;
• Exercise for reflecting on classroom activities, participation in MOOCs and output of online questionnaires;
• A development plan to fill for describing the soft skills ownened, discussing personal career goals and action plans for strengthening the soft skills emerged as crucial for job placement and/or accessing advanced training courses.

The topics will be analyzed/presented in terms of inclusive industrialization, multiculturality, innovation and diversity management too, as indicated by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Readings/Bibliography

The study materials will be available on the e-learning platform before and during the course.

Teaching methods

Blended method (18 hours of taught lessons, 6 hours of distance learning, 24 hours of online MOOCs).

The course consists of five lessons (4 classes of 4 hours each and the final one of 2 hours) based on active teaching methods, which will be mostly team works requiring to using the soft skills to face concrete situations similar to typical job search activity (for example, tackling with job interviews and selection exercises) or daily work-related issues (for example, managing interpersonal interactions).

The classes will be delivered in the second semester. The calendar will be published in this webpage

TIMETABLE:

April 8th from 2 to 6 pm (Aula Europa 2, V.le Europa, 115, Cesena)

April 15th from 2 to 6 pm (remotely)

April 22nd from 2 to 6 pm (Aula Europa 2, V.le Europa, 115, Cesena)

April 29th from 2 to 6 pm (Aula Europa 2, V.le Europa, 115, Cesena)

May 6th from 2 to 4 pm(remotely)

Assessment methods

At the end of the course, the final mark will be based on a written assignment on a "soft skills development plan".

The criteria for the evaluation will be:

1) The knowledge of the skills discussed in the course and their relation with career success (a suitable bibliography will be provided);

2) The consistency between the weaknesses identified thanks to the questionnaires and previous activities and strategies adopted to improve the soft skills in the future

Teaching tools

The teaching activity will be support by e-learning platform.

The platform will allow to download the ppt presentations and exercises.

Since the beginnig of the course, all the relevant information concerning the course (exercises, questionnaires, deadlines, ...) will be available on the platform.

Office hours

See the website of Rita Chiesa