College Provides Opportunities for Social Skills Building

Key points

• College provides ample opportunities for students to hone their social skills.
• Once hired, new graduates lacking these skills may engage in behaviors that undermine their employment.
• Alongside their academic training, college students must build soft skill competencies.

"Young adults are inundated with ideas that the college experience will be the best 4 years of their lives, but research has demonstrated that students often feel their actual experiences are different than what they expected, causing a lack of quality of their social connections" (Wodika et al., 2024).

In a new article in the journal Social and Emotional Learning, graduate student Mikaela Dahlman and I highlight the challenge faced by college students who are skilled and competent in their content expertise but lacking in their interpersonal skills. We argue that college is the last “polishing” or finishing ground for students to hone their intra- and interpersonal skills in preparation for thriving in the workforce.

We see new graduate hires undermining their workplace performance and job stability by engaging in behaviors that compromise their employment. These can include:

• Not making an effort to integrate into pre-existing team dynamics
• Failing to ask questions
• Disrespecting expected arrival times
• Spending too much time on personal mobile devices
• Lacking interpersonal skills, which leads to workplace conflicts (Massaro, 2020; Tulgan, 2015)

This reminds me of when I was hiring a research assistant to work in my lab. When I explained the hours, the student responded: "But I have yoga at 10 a.m." I replied that I suspected there were multiple classes offered at the yoga studio and suggested the student might take a different class. To this, the student replied, "I align with the 10 a.m. instructor. You want me to take care of my well-being, don't you?"

A recent piece in Forbes titled lays the blame on employee attitude. This is echoed in a recent post on Psychology Today reflecting on college graduates’ readiness for an ever-changing workforce, which argues that “Communication, professionalism, adaptability, critical thinking, and collaboration remain among the most sought-after competencies.” Extending the conversation further, a recent piece in Forbes argues for the advantage offered by “soft skills” in a context where everyone is technologically proficient. “… employees who excel in both technical skills and soft skills like empathy, communication, collaboration and problem-solving are more likely to climb the corporate ladder and earn a higher salary.”

The college context, through both formal (i.e., collaborative assignments in courses) and informal (e.g., joining clubs or associations) pathways, provides a rich training ground for students to hone their social and emotional competencies. Colleges must continue providing opportunities for students to polish their social skills, but students too have a responsibility to ensure they are developing their soft skills alongside their academic training and emerging content expertise.

References