15 Tips for Teaching Soft Skills (Online or In the Classroom)

Teaching soft skills is more important than ever before. For years, hiring managers have long been reporting a lack of soft skills in recent graduates. Research conducted in 2018 with Fortune 500 CEOs by the Stanford Research Institute International and the Carnegie Melon Foundation, found that 75% of long-term job success depends on people skills. Only 25% depended on job-related skills. In a post-pandemic world with many employees having to adapt to different routines and new ways of connecting with colleagues, soft skills are essential.

How can you do more to teach soft skills in any CTE program? Here are the tips they shared, all of which can be done online or in person.

Tip #1: Use group projects to foster teamwork

Teamwork skills include the mix of interactive, interpersonal, problem-solving and communication skills needed by a group of people working on a common task, towards a common goal.
In a conversation with North Carolina FCS teacher Ashley Edmonds recently, she shared the benefits of group projects in her FCS classroom. Any assignment that involves collaboration will help your students hone their ability to work in teams.

Ashley says she’s found that sometimes, information is received differently when it comes from your peers. For her, group projects help her understand their ability to work as a team and see who can be a team player.

Teaching in-person? Assign in-class time to research a topic and present as a group. Require that each student spend an equal amount of time presenting a different portion of the information.

Teaching online? Students can still be responsible for scheduling their Zoom meetings, during which they can work together to conduct research or create a group PowerPoint presentation.

Tip #2: Engage in a Visualization Exercise

The visionary leader can clearly articulate their view of the future, allowing followers to understand how they play an important role in that future. This activity will include a visualization exercise in which students think about their goals, future, and dreams. Ask students to close their eyes and lead them through a visual imagery exercise. Use the following prompts to guide students to not only think about but also to visualize their goals. Be careful to pause between prompts to give them time to create visuals and really imagine the possibilities.

Visualization Prompts

• Think of a career or educational goal or dream you want to accomplish. This might be something you’re currently pursuing or something for your future. It could be something you’ve considered but haven’t truly thought you could do.
• Imagine what the day would look like when you achieve your goal. Picture yourself in that environment. What do you look like? What are you saying and doing? Who else is there with you?
• Now see the environment. What does it look like? Smell like? Sound like? How do you feel?
• Consider what it took for you to get to this point. How long did it take you? What sacrifices did you make? What little victories were able to celebrate along the way? What victories that you knew brought you that much closer to your goal?
• What did that path look like? Was it smooth and even or bumpy and challenging? What difficulties did you encounter? How did you work through these? Think about the time it took to get through to each one.
• Now, picture yourself today and think about the steps you will take to get to that goal. Ask students to open their eyes and take 5-10 minutes to journal what they envisioned.

Tip #3: Develop Honesty and Integrity

Having honesty and integrity in the workplace is one of the most important qualities of effective employees. In this activity, students learn what this means and how to apply these skills to their work and personal lives. You can begin, if students are not familiar with these words, by defining each. For this activity, find quotes or sayings online that focus on honest and/or integrity.  Share these with students and, as a writing exercise, ask students to tell you what they think the quote really means and why.

Tip #4: Use Ice Breakers

One easy way to integrate employability skills into every class is through the use of ice-breaker activities. These could be a 30-second introduction or a focused, five-minute activity for teaching soft skills in every class. Often, students might not even be aware they’re learning soft skills. Remember that:

• Collaborative work helps build communication skills. Start class with a quick think-pair-share activity in which students pair up for a brief discussion.
• Open-ended questions build problem-solving skills. Write a big idea question on the board and have students journal their answers.
• Reflection activities help build critical thinking skills. Use a K-W-L chart at the beginning and end of class to help students reflect on what they know and what they’ve learned.
• Oral speaking assignments build self-confidence. Facilitate “Introductions but with a twist.” Ask everyone to introduce themselves and state something unusual about themselves that no one knows.
• Help students develop time-management skills. Give each small group a bowl with (pre-measured) dried beans in it and ask them to put in a few larger objects, such as fruit. The beans spill out, and the students will do their best to pile them back in again. Then, show them the trick of putting in the fruit (or larger objects) in first and the beans around them. It illustrates the point of prioritizing the big tasks and fitting the smaller tasks around it. Interruptions for the rest of the day can be referred to as beans.

Tip #5: Set SMART Goals

SMART goals help you set actionable objectives that achieve results. Many managers and employees may use this method to further break down longstanding vague or unclear goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time based. Each letter in the acronym is a principle that can be used in the process to create goals that make sense.  Share a scenario and have students write a SMART goal for it.

Sample Scenario: Mitchell is a recent college graduate. He has a degree in interior design. It has always been a dream of his to start his own business using his own designs for spaces like offices. He likes the idea of having his own business so he can work when he wants and travel. Mitchell loves to travel with his family, and he uses some of the pictures from his trips in his room designs. He would really like to be able to quit his part-time job in a couple of years to run his own business full time. Mitchell’s broad goal is that he wants to start a business.

Tip #6: Coaching as a Leader

You can introduce coaching as a leader through Ted Talks. There are many Ted Talks that cover this topic; here is one example. Play the video and ask students to identify skills that leaders have. Students can write these down individually or brainstorm as a class. Some skills you might want to cover are recognizing strengths, staying objective, and owning the results. Now, using the skills identified, share a scenario. After reading the scenario to the class, ask students how they could use some leadership skills to coach their employee in the scenario.

Sample Scenario: You are the manager at a local convenience store. On Monday, you observed your cashier, Meghan, being rude to a customer. The customer said that they received the wrong drink. Meghan said she gave them just what they ordered and that she was right. She said she would not give them a new drink unless they paid for it. The customer walked away very angry and left the building.

Tip #7: Instill Professionalism in Your Class

Have students who can’t communicate and don’t understand the value of showing up on time? Your class is a great place to start developing these skills. Often times, professionalism isn’t expected of teens anywhere else. By demanding professionalism, you’re setting students up to succeed in the workplace. Remember, consistency is key with this. Some ways you can instill professionalism in your class is by requiring students to arrive on time, come prepared, use proper spelling and punctuation, and dress for success. You might not be able to do each of these every day; the idea is just to mimic a work environment as closely as you can.

Tip #8: Using Conflict Approach Styles

Conflict in the workplace can destroy motivation, reduce productivity, and lead to anger and frustration. Any student who wants to be in a leadership role one day must be able to successfully facilitate conflict resolution. There are five conflict approach styles to choose from according to the Thomas/Kilmann Model: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating. For this activity, give students a overview of the five styles and have them read through a workplace scenario. Then, have students use one of the conflict approach styles to solve it.

Sample Scenario: You are the head chef in a local cafe. Marlene and Jose both work in the kitchen. Jose was hired a few months ago and Marlene has worked there for nine years. Jose, while a competent worker, tends to procrastinate. Marlene works more steadily and keeps on top of her tasks. She complains that she feels she must worry about Jose’s work along with her own. Marlene and Jose rely on each other for certain tasks to be completed. Marlene is uncomfortable with waiting until the last minute. Because of the conflict, Jose is missing more work, and you suspect it’s because he wants to avoid Marlene and her anger. How do you resolve this conflict? Which conflict approach style would you choose and why?

Tip #9: Teach Trust Through Confidentiality Scenarios

You can use scenarios to teach the skill of trust, helping students learn how trust and confidentiality are important to leadership roles. Ask students if they’ve ever shared confidential information with someone else, like a secret, or if someone has ever shared another person’s confidential information with you. Lead a discussion with questions like, “Are you someone who can be trusted with private information?” Give students a scenario focused on trust/confidentiality and ask how they would handle it. You can divide your class into groups of three to four students to discuss the scenario.

Sample Scenario: Your friend, who is also your partner and co-owner of your restaurant, decides to go solo and open their own restaurant. It will directly compete against you. You’ve been through a lot together and have plenty of information that could negatively influence their reputation. Do you leak this information?

Tip #10: Instill Confidence the SPECIAL Way

Self-confidence is an important soft skill for any career. In a post-pandemic world, handshaking may no longer be part of a standard introduction. This makes practicing a no-contact, professional way to introduce yourself and make a good impression an important and engaging activity for students. We suggest the acronym SPECIAL as a way to practice these introductions. SPECIAL stands for smile, posture, eye contact, confidence, introduce yourself, ask a question, and learn and listen. We want students to smile, stand up straight, and look people in the eye when introducing themselves.

Tip #11: Use Scenario Cards

Never underestimate the power of scenario-based learning! We offer a variety of pathway-specific scenario cards for teaching soft skills in agriculture, health science, family and consumer science, and trade skills careers. These cards cover real-world situations in careers as welders, vet techs, childcare providers, medical assistants, and more. Use these cards to develop soft skills within specific occupations through small-group discussions, as large-group ice breakers, or as individual challenges. Each scenario includes points of view to consider and key questions unique to that scenario.

See a sample of our Construction Career Scenario Cards here.

Tip #12: Create Short Units on Related Topics

Bundle groups of soft skills focused on one work-related topic. For example, the unit could be “Let’s Get a Job!” and the skills covered might be communication, interviewing, networking, negotiation, and self-confidence. You can be creative with these focused units for teaching soft skills. If you’re looking to focus on leadership, your unit could be “Being an Inspiring Leader Bootcamp” and the skills you address might be trust, visionary leadership, honesty and integrity, creativity, and optimism. Each unit stands alone and pulling the skills together like this can be very effective.

Tip #13: Use the Learn-Apply-Assess Methodology

The Learn-Apply-Assess Methodology is great for teaching soft skills. In the learn portion, employability skills information is shared via lecture, slide presentation, or video. Then, students practice the skill in multiple activities through the apply part of the lesson. Finally, students complete a summative assessment, lesson-level quiz, or scenario to check mastery of the skill in the assess portion of the lesson.

Tip #14: Use Our Leadership Skills Program

Use our comprehensive Leadership Soft Skills Program as a standalone course or to supplement a current program. This program includes an 18-lesson teacher guide, 20 student workbooks, a set of workplace scenario cards, and presentation slides geared toward teaching soft skills. Its curriculum features up to 26 hours of teaching time and covers soft skills that are integral to leadership roles, like trust, professionalism, and coaching. This program is great for generating ice-breaker activities and aligns to Carl D. Perkins Funding and Pre-Professional Certification.

Explore the online version of the program here.

Tip #15: Use Our Employability Skills Program

The Employability Skills Program is an engaging, easy-to-implement program for teaching soft skills. It comes with a 19-lesson teacher guide, 20 students workbooks, a set of workplace scenario cards, and presentation slides. Its curriculum boasts up to 30 hours of teaching time with lessons on critical soft skills, like communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. Use the hands-on activities and real-world applications in this program to supplement existing employability skills, teach a complete unit on skills, generate real-life discussions, and prompt reflection activities.

Check out the online version of the program here.

More resources for teaching soft skills

• • Unlock your free trial of our soft skills programs here
  • Download our soft skills guide: 5 Ideas for Incorporating Soft Skills Into Any Classroom
  • Watch our on-demand webinar: “How to Integrate Employability Skills Into Your CTE Program“