"Career and Technical Education is ideally suited to teaching students the soft skills needed to succeed in the 21st century workplace."--Ed Bronson

The following is from a new article, Helping CTE students L(earn) to their Potential by a friend Ed Bronson, assistant director of Career and Technical Education for the Madison-Oneida BOCES in Verona, New York.

A recent survey of 400 leading American corporations by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills notes that managers consider 70 percent of high school graduates lacking professionalism and work ethic skills. A 2005 survey by the American Society for Training and Development reached similar conclusions. Ever since the education secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS 1992), American corporations have been imploring schools to better prepare graduates for the world of work. Along with an obvious need for a solid foundation in SCANS skills such as core academics, the need for good interpersonal and personal skills such as responsibility, self-esteem and integrity were also emphasized. These latter qualities are widely described as “soft” skills because they tend to be tricky to scientifically measure and are believed to be even trickier to somehow attempt to teach.

Processing Experience-- Teachers commonly express frustration with what they perceive to be a widespread lack of emotional intelligence among high school students and wonder to what extent important employability skills can actually be taught. In order to make real progress with students needing to develop transferable employability skills, the students must first be ready to consider the worth of having such skills. The best way to do this is by facilitating student reflections on learning.

In the article Ed proposes a variety of useful means to actively impart positive values in the learning process. The article is published by www.acteonline.com