86659 - Soft Skills to be Effective at Work - Cesena

Learning outcomes

The course aims to improve the knowledge of the importance of soft skills in current work contexts and to foster their development in university students. Soft skills, combined with academic knowledge and technical skills, are essential to face with the challenges of the transition from university to the world of work

Specifically, the objectives of the course are to help the students to:

• Improve awareness of the value of soft skills for job placement

• Recognize soft skills and their transferability to different contexts and different circumstances

• Self-assess their own oft skills

• Develop the soft skills

• Define an action plan to fill their (potential) soft skills gaps

Course contents

The program consists of three meetings (each of 4 hours) during which the participants will be asked to practice their soft skills in individual and group exercises that simulate job search activities (for example, job interview in the selection process) and / or in the daily working reality (for example, working in teams or solving unexpected problems). Specifically, the classes will concern 3 areas of soft skills:

-Critical thinking skills, which includes the ability to collect information/ data that allow to analyze the situation, to process this information/data and find a solution;

-Coping skills, including the ability to plan, manage and implement an action, to set goal and make consistent decisions, and to face with changes. This last area refers to the specific content of the MOOC entitled "Change management";

-Relational skills, that refers to the ability of self-presentation, the ability of team working and conflict management and includes the use of the MOOC entitled "Managing conflict".

The e-learning activity will consist in 6 hour of individual exercise focused on:

-Quantitative and qualitative soft skills self-assessment;

-Goal setting activities;

-Preparation of an action plan to reduce the own soft skill gaps.

Teaching methods

The programme  will consist of a combined Learning approach based on classroom (12 hours) and e-learning modules (6 hours on the latform and 48 hours of MOOC).

Classes:

March 7th from 2 to 6 pm

March 14th from 2 to 6 pm

March 28th from 2 to 6 pm

Room: Aula Europa 2-V.le Europa, 115-Cesena

Assessment methods

The attendance of classes and the online assignments are compulsory. At the end of the course the participants will receive a mark.

The evaluation will be based on two elements:

1) the acquisition of knowledge on the soft skills and their importance in the work context (an appropriate bibliography will be provided);

2) the consistency between the results of soft skills self-assessement, goal setting and action plan

Teaching tools

PowerPoint presentation;

case study analysis;

individual and group exercises;

online questionnaire

MOOC

Office hours

See the website of Rita Chiesa