This project deals with the promoting high school students’ soft skills. Students‘ acquisition on soft skills which is also one of the main objectives of EU 2020 (European Comission,2010) is vital in today’s global market. Many employers would like to have workers who have posses hard and soft skills together. There can be said that a work environment is matter of fact that soft skills (communication, teamwork, problem-solving, leadership, creativity) are hard to find, these skills appeal to employees more important than finding employers with hard skills. In a research which are eight European countries (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweeden and the UK) involved in pointed out employees looking in soft skills lead problems in the form of cost, time (tuningjournal.org). Schools teach students how to read, write, maths in berief “hard skills” but the 21st century workface has had many changes for technological developments, therefore schools have to develop students’ not only their academic knowledge but also their social abilities to prepare them for real life situations.
The main problem is that soft skills are considered as inborn skills but Heckman and Kaurtz say that “they are mix of dispositions understanding attributes and practices” and according to the reports opportunities should be given to young people since companies need a more skilled force (New Skills for New Jobs Anticipating and matching labour market and skills needs,Brussels). It’s highlighted that while some individuals have already these skills by birth, some others can acquire them over time by education in both schools and families. If students can gain these abilities during their education at school, they will have more chance of finding good jobs matching their abilities. Furthermore, they can build good relationships which is crucial in their social life.
With this project as 5 partner countries (Turkey, Lithuania, Portugal, Italy and Poland) aim that students‘ acquisition on soft skills in our institutions suffering from the same problems based on the results of questionnaires evaluating students’ soft skills behaviours in each school. According to this questionnaire, named “Soft Skill Competency”, our schools lack in developing creativity and problem solving abilities of the students. Students also see lack themselves in doing presentations and working and leading in a team. We will cooperate to be better at developing students’ soft skills by putting into practice and add the new methods of each partner to the curriculum.
As a result of this, we will support the modernization of our institutions and arouse councious of the students to be European Citizien. We will also build a bridge between cultures with transnational activities, which make our project have “European Added Value” At the end of the project, will have had 5 different methods to promote students’ soft skills in the book, written by all partners, guiding other schools, teachers and anybody interested in developing soft skills.
