In today’s increasingly globalised world, it takes more than just excellence in academic achievement to succeed. Now, universities and employers alike are looking for individuals with a strong portfolio of soft skills in their résumés.
At AIS, our inquiry-based, interdisciplinary approach nurtures the skills and conceptual understanding our students need to become capable, self-regulated learners and responsible global citizens. Accordingly, our team of specialist teachers and expert educators combine in-depth subject knowledge with an array of soft skill-based teaching to build competencies that equip our students for life.
So what are soft skills?
They are the personal attributes that allow us to effectively interact with others and achieve to the best of our abilities – from working well in a team and prioritising our responsibilities to adapting to changes in our environment and thinking outside the box. They give our students the confidence to articulate their thoughts, organise their ideas, strengthen their work ethic, and learn the arts of communication, leadership, creativity, innovation, and compromise.
Soft skills also help improve academic performance and enable our students to maximise their potential. For example, acquiring critical thinking, problem-solving and time management abilities allow students to perform more effectively during assessments and exams. And developing accountability, multitasking and resourcefulness skills mean our senior cohorts have the agility to transition to different teaching and learning patterns when they move into tertiary study and beyond.
Furthermore, our globally recognised curricula reflect our international setting and celebrate inclusivity, diversity and multilingualism. Both the International Baccalaureate and the Cambridge curriculums value cultural identity and combine disciplinary subject knowledge alongside the development of learning competencies throughout every student’s educational journey. Across all year levels, we teach our young people to respect other perspectives and customs and empower them to make a difference in our world.
In addition, we work with our students to enhance their relational and collaborative abilities, including emotional intelligence (EQ), social skills, team building and conflict resolution, to name a few. Even our youngest learners are introduced to age-appropriate sections of this skill set as they discover how to form relationships with others, become effective communicators, and find solutions to the challenges before them.
Soft skills are vitally important to universities and employers as well because they define how individuals will integrate, perform, and ultimately succeed within each environment. Top universities want to ensure new undergrads can easily interact with peers and faculty. And alongside academic performance, they look for applicants who can demonstrate a wide range of soft skills which will positively contribute to the wellbeing of the student body and campus life.
Likewise, employers view soft skills as highly beneficial to individuals and their future careers. In 2020, LinkedIn identified the five most in-demand soft skills by employers as creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability and emotional intelligence.
As global citizens, our students have a responsibility to gain experience, knowledge and understanding of our local and international communities as they strive to become confident, open-minded and caring individuals. As such, AIS continues to deliver these soft skill competencies across every lesson and activity. We teach our students how to make a positive impression through excellent communication and a confident, capable attitude while displaying integrity, empathy and the ability to work well within a team.
Integrating these elements into our classrooms and learning programmes ensures we lead our students to a brighter future.
