Hard skills, soft skills and core values: balance and determination that are transformed into action and drive
Maristes Sants- les Corts believes with International Baccalaureate and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that the profile of professionals that will be needed in 2030 must have a ‘blended’ balance of hard skills and soft skills. We do not understand one part without the other, we need rigorous academic and technical knowledge and at the same time we need interpersonal, communication, leadership and teamwork soft skills.
This mix of hard and soft skills has to be blended together with attitudes and core values. When a person uses hard and soft skills in accordance with his or her personal convictions and attitudes, he or she can achieve excellence in terms of personal and professional abilities, which ultimately lead to actions and effects on society and their personal surroundings.
Hard skills (first column), also known as technical skills, are those skills related to a specific task or situation. This involves the understanding and control of this specific task that involves methods, processes, procedures or techniques. These skills are easily quantifiable, unlike the soft skills, which are related to one’s own personality and are more difficult to measure. Hard skills are skills that can be tested or have been previously tested and may involve some professional, technical or academic qualification. Hard skills are skills typically related to professional know-how, procedures or technical skills necessary for any given employment.
We understand, therefore, that the new educational or working environments of the future will increasingly call for soft skills (second column). However, notwithstanding this we also consider that soft skills must be integrated with hard skills. If there is neither understanding nor sound knowledge, it will be difficult to achieve the potential of the soft skills. It is therefore necessary to find a balance between them, as one needs the other.
Maristes Sants-Les Cortsprepares students in hard skills. Methodological insight, procedures, techniques and in-depth learning are considered to be as important as the soft skills that emerge together.
Soft skills have nothing to do with being weak (there are those who call them fundamental skills). The term is used to indicate a set of intangible personal qualities, traits, attributes, habits and attitudes that can be put to use in many different types of work. Some examples of soft skills include: empathy, leadership, sense of responsibility, integrity, self-esteem, self-management, motivation, flexibility, sociability, time management and decision-making. The term is also used in contrast to ‘hard’ skills which are considered more technical, of a very specific nature and particular to an occupation, and which (generally) can be taught more easily than soft skills.
The importance of core values (third column): It is essential to have hard skills and soft skills, but the backbone, the basic structure where all the skills come together are the core values of each individual student. Their ethical intuitions, their convictions about how their world has to function and how they have to carry out their actions in a complex situation. Values are deeply held beliefs in which certain attitudes and qualities we believe are highly sought after. They define what is right or fundamentally important for each of us. They serve as guidelines for our decisions and actions. Our basic values determine what is truly important for each individual. When we make the decision to follow our core values, we cannot easily be convinced to go against them. To be truly successful in our lifelong journey, we need to establish and develop clear and concise core values. Our core values are fundamental in defining who we are, what we do and where we are going. Once defined, our core values must guide us in all aspects of our daily lives.
