Critical thinking, written and oral communication, ethical decision making, and teamwork are a few skills that employers are looking for in college graduates when hiring entry-level candidates.
Psychology professors Lori Camparo and Ayesha Shaikh examined how students can acquire these soft skills in the classroom in a recent article, How to Develop Marketable Competencies and Sell Yourself to Employers.
In the article—recently published in the academic journal Eye on Psi Chi—Camparo and Shaikh shared their insight and provided specific examples of various class assignments that can “help students better identify where and when professors present these soft skill development opportunities.” This way, they are able to better present themselves to a potential employer.
In addition to identifying specific lessons, Camparo and Shaikh recognized certain obstacles that might prevent students from participating in the classroom, such as anxiety when making presentations or opting out of a group assignment, and explained the importance of overcoming those obstacles. The authors encourage students to take “advantage of these opportunities so that you are ready to enter an employment setting after graduation with confidence and you know what to do even though you no longer have a syllabus or teaching assistants to guide you.”
