Oral_Presentation

Table of Contents Introduction...............................................................................................................................3 1.0 The Important of Soft Skills for University Students.........................................................4 2.1 Communication Skills.............................................................................................4 2.2.1 Reasons Why University Students Lack of Communication Skills......5 2.2.2 Ways to Enhance University Students’ Communication Skills............6 2.2 Thinking Skills........................................................................................................7 2.3.3 Reasons Why University Students Lack of Thinking Skills.................7 2.3.4 Ways to Enhance University Students’ Thinking Skills.......................8 2.3 Time Management Skills........................................................................................9 2.4.5 Reasons Why University Students Lack of Time Management.........10 2.4.6 Ways to Enhance University Students’ Time Management Skills.....10 Conclusion..............................................................................................................................11 References..............................................................................................................................13 Introduction Nowadays, a lack of soft skill among students at school and graduates from tertiary education institution has rises everyone attention especially employers and educators. Before proceed, what exactly are soft skills' According to the online encyclopaedia “Wikipedia”, “soft skills refers to the cluster of personality traits, social graces, facility with language, personal habits, friendliness and optimism that mark people to varying degrees. Soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job.” ( Wikipedia, 2007 ). Other than that, the online Investopedia explains that “soft skills have more to do with who we are that what we know. As such, soft skills encompass the character traits that decide how well one interacts with others, and are usually a definite part of one’s personality. Whereas hard skills can be learned and perfected over time, soft skills are more difficult to acquire and change.” ( Investopedia, 2012 ). Table 1: Examples of soft skills * Communication skills * Thinking skills * Problem solving skills * Entrepreneur skills * Leadership skills * Time management skills * Integrity | * Conflict management * Responsibility * Self-esteem * Work ethic * Common knowledge * Creativity * Courtesy | Table 1 shows the list of some examples of soft skills based on the Wikipedia and some articles that I have searched. However, from the explanation and the list of table 1 above it is clearly that we are looking for three soft skills that are important for university students. There are communication skills, thinking skills and time management. We knew that soft skills are very important for universities students as the competitive in job-market is increasing day by day. Therefore, this report will discuss on the important of soft skills for universities students, why and how to enhance their soft skills. This is to ensure their success both at the university and at the workplace. 1.0 The Important of Soft Skills for University Students 1.1 Communication Skills As we know that soft skills are very much depends on the context and one’s personal perception. When we mentioned about soft skills, one will immediately think of communication skills. The communication skills refer to effective communication in both the national language and English language in different contexts with different people. There are eight sub-skills under communication skill where three of them are the important skills and other five are the good have skills. In education system either in higher education or lower education, communication skills are very important. As we know that in many countries, basic education or primary education is a compulsory and it focuses on reading, writing and speaking. People learn to read book, write letters, speak and develop skills is to fulfil their expected roles in their daily lives. At this stage, university students must be good in communication skills so that by the time they leave university, they are already able to participate in public and community activities and decision making. The absence of good communication skills somehow has an influence on one’s presentation. According to the reorientation of basic education for ESD (Education for sustainable development) which is: the ability to communicate effectively (both orally and in writing). The communication skills seemed to be one important component that lack in the future lives. The incompetence of the future graduates to master both languages will be a set-back to a lot of potential development and advancement of the country. Thus, this is a good time to reorientate the curriculum of higher institution to embed communication skills. (Vishal Jain, 2009). 1.1.1 Reasons Why University Students Lack of Communication Skills Communication Skills Conversation Presentation Behaviour Language Proficiency Dialectic Local Self-esteem Dialog Local Local Local Etiquette Foreign Discussion Culture Listening Body language Figure 1 Communication skills Source : http://ir.polytechnic.edu.na/bitstream/10628/39/1/The%20Importance%20of%20Soft%20%20Skills-Education%20beyond%20academic%20knowledge.pdf Figure 1 shows the important factors of communication skills in a person. Most of graduate students lack of this communication skills. This is due to most of the students focus and racing in their academic to achieve the best grade as the employer will only hire those who are qualified. This caused the students lack of interaction between each other as they everyday studies their modules and never border about their surrounding or get in touch with other students. So, the students have difficulties when communicate with each other as they do not know how to begin a conversation. They will also have difficulties in listening, discussion and understanding. For example, in a group discussion there are some members that do not talk much and give their opinions even though they got the ideas. This is due to lack of the interaction and body language among the group members. Therefore, students who want to enter the working world must be good in language proficiency. Minimum requirements for a graduate of a tertiary institution must be good in spoken and writing language, conversation skills and body language while lastly good presentation skills in order to be able to market oneself and one’s ideas. However, it will become more complex when we keep on digging into the communication skills. In the English speaking world “Language proficiency is the ability to speak, read and write Standard English in a business like way. One may have the “hard” skill of knowing what usage is correct and what is incorrect, but lack the “soft” skill of knowing when to use only standard form and in what tone to use them.” ( Waggoner, 2002 ). 1.1.2 Ways to Enhance University Students’ Communication Skills The first move in improving communication skills of students is to raise their awareness on how importance is the communication skills and the consequences of shortcomings in this regard. Students should be encouraged to enhance their communication skills by applying the methods that we have mentioned above such as read book, attending courses and joining clubs or societies. This is to broaden their skill e.g. like debating societies, Toast Masters who are practicing Rhetoric, or scientific societies who offer presentations and discussions. 1.2 Thinking Skills What do you understand about thinking skills' We may hear it is like a computer Central Unit (CPU). We also may hear that we only use a portion of our brain. As university students, they use a lot of their brain but it still not up to half of our brain that is being used. However, there are specific thinking skills that can be improved by how we think, how they work and how to sharpen our thinking skill. If we become more conscious about those skills, we will become better as a person, family member and worker. Hence, there are two types of thinking skills: critical thinking and creative thinking. These help us to solve our problem and make decision. Critical thinking is where we analyse and understand everything in this world with careful judgment or evaluation. On the other hand, creative thinking is where we have innovative thoughts and unusual ideas to put things together in a new and imaginative ways. This is where we always said think outside of the box. 1.2.1 Reasons Why University Students Lack of Thinking Skills As we all know that nowadays students are very comfortable with all the notes and information is given by their lecturer. They even can search their lecturer by some of the world’s leading scholars and authorities on topics too numerous to mention through websites such as YouTube and TED.com. Therefore, students do not need to think critically to get and understands what they need so. According to the New York University sociologist Richard Arum, many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make clear argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation. For examples, the students couldn’t determine the cause of an increase in neighbourhood crime or how best to respond without being swayed by emotional testimony and political spin. ( Doug Mataconis, 2011 ). Due to so comfortable with everything in this Information Communication and Technology (ICT) era, students become nondependent, no enquiry about their modules, and never try to use their thinking skills in their study lives as everything is in our hands. Besides, most of students’ modules are all in theory base where they just need to memorise but no application in their real lives. This caused the students do not explore their thinking skills. According to a brilliant mathematician and teacher Polya G., 1945, he noticed that his students didn’t know how to solve unfamiliar problems. He became convinced that, although they knew a lot of mathematics, they didn’t know how to direct their own thought processes in ways that could be fruitful. They didn’t realise that there are strategies for solving mathematical problems. This led him to write How to Solve It which explain what he calls heuristic strategies for solving problems. Though teaching Polya-type problem solving heuristics is not greatly in fashion at the moment, many university teachers refer their students to How to Solve It at some stage ( Polya, 1945). Hence, students who want to enter the work life will face a lot of obstacles as they do not know how to use their thinking skills. Students who are too rely with their lecturer notes will face a lot of difficulties to find job as the employer will only hire one who are creative and have good critical thinking skills. This is due to those who good in thinking skills can be independent and solves their own problem with great solution. 1.2.2 Ways to Enhance University Students’ Thinking Skills We all know that thinking skills is very important for us either in education or other aspects of life. We also know that we have just uses a portion of our CPU called our mind. We must push ourselves in this area to be good in thinking skills. Therefore, we should begin to learn forward and stretch our efforts. According to Boud and Falchikov, 2005, Students need to be able to analyse the quality of the sources that they propose to use. This is not a skill that they have developed in high school where newspaper opinion pieces are often used for analysing arguments and the analysis is based on the language used by the author to persuade the reader. It is important for students to learn to find, evaluate and use high-quality evidence to back up their arguments. ( Boud and Falchikov, 2005 ). Students must be able to identify, evaluate, and affirm with their answer at the end of the day. Thinking skills cannot be taught directly in a person. Students can improve their thinking skills by brainstorm their brain. Through brainstorming, a student is able to identify, evaluate and give answer in short period as they are using their critical thinking skills to solve their question or equation. This can help the students to improve their reaction towards their surrounding in future. 1.3 Time Management Skills Do you able to manage your time' What is the definition of time management' According to the online encyclopaedia “Wikipedia”, “time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. Time management is where a range of skills, tools, and techniques are use to manage time when accomplishing specific task, projects and goals complying with a due date. This set encompasses a wide scope of activities including planning, allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent, monitoring, organising, scheduling and prioritising. Usually time management is a necessity in any project development as it determines the project completion time and scope.” ( Wikipedia, 2012 ). Time management is not about getting lots of stuff to be done but making sure that we are doing the right things that needed to be done. A smart time manager is very stingy on how they spend their time. They only focus on things that bring benefits to them. When a person able to manage his or hers time, he or she will be able to enjoy more relaxing time, focus and on track. Therefore, one must be able to manage their time to gain more benefits such as more free time, able to do things that we love and focus for future plans. It is better to complete our priority stuffs rather than busy for nothing that even can lead us to the stage of stress. This caused a person to be less productive and far from success. 1.3.1 Reasons Why University Students Lack of Time Management Most students do not have a good time management. They tend to have fun rather than completing their priority stuffs. They like to complete their priority stuff such as assignment during the last few minutes. Same goes during the examination prior where they study their module one day before their examination. This cause these students cannot get excellent marks even though they are clever. Besides, students do not plan for what they are going to do tomorrow and how to spend their day wisely. They go through the daily lives without any plans. They are just waiting for the time to passing day by day. This is one of the worst habits that grow in most of the students nowadays. Hence, they go through their day with meaningless. This is due to their laziness habit. Other than that, their tight schedules caused them not to have good time management. They are too busy with their assignment, classes and school activities until they do not have enough time to settle down their stuffs. Therefore, students who want to enter the work field with lack of time management skills will not be able to get job as one of the criteria that employer look up for is an employee must got the time management skills. This is because time management is very important to an organisation especially those who involves in business field. 1.3.2 Ways to Enhance University Students’ Time Management Skills As we all know that their times are so packed so they need to have a proper way to enhance their time management skills. There are several ways to enhance one’s time management skills, for examples, write down everything, and allow for flexibility lastly plan ahead. Students should jot down all their daily activities in their organiser. They should schedule for the next day activities before they went to sleep, for examples, when to do your laundry, assignments, revision, rest and sleep. The weird your schedule gets, the more important this comes. Next, they should allow for flexibility in their organiser. This is to allow room for adjustment in case there are unforeseen circumstances. You may not know that your immediate families might be hospitalised due to unexpected happening, and you certainly do not want to miss to pay a visit. Lastly, student should plan ahead on all their activities. This is to make sure their schedule is run smoothly. Do you have assignment due to the last month' Work backward in your calendar and figure out how much time you need to write it, how much time you’ll need to research it and how much time you’ll need to pick your topic. You should work backward from the due date and schedule the time into your organiser before it is too late. Therefore, students should manage their time by list down all their activities, plan ahead and leave some empty room for rescheduling. It is important for students to have a proper time management to make sure everything run smoothly. Conclusion In this report, I have discussed about the soft skills that are important for the university students, reason and ways to enhance their soft skills. It is very important for university students to be good in soft skills for their future and work related. This is because the employer will only look for employees who are good in soft skills to make sure their business runs smoothly. As a future graduates, they need to reflex themselves and identify the weaknesses in having good soft skills. They need to plan their daily activities properly to make sure everything runs smoothly. They also need to set their target and firm with their decision. This is to make sure they will not be easily getting influence by other distraction. Plan ahead is important for student to visualise their future and know what they should do to achieve their goals. Government bodies also play an important role to enhance student’s soft skills. They can enhance student’s soft skills by giving motivation through seminar, courses, and talk on how to manage time effectively. This can help students to detect and know how to improve their weaknesses for their future. Other than that, educational institution play an important role to make sure that the university students and future graduates are good in soft skills. This is to make sure that those graduates enable to gain job in future and manage to deal with the real world situation after their graduation. Educational institution can help students to enhance their soft skills by giving them counselling, talk and teach them on how to improve their soft skills. Educational institution can conduct courses or classes to boost the student’s soft skills. However, the student itself play the most important roles in enhance their own soft skills. Government bodies and educational institution is just guiding them on how to improve their skills and giving motivation to widen their knowledge besides boosting their abilities. References Schulz, B. ( June, 2008 ). The Important of Soft Skills: Education Beyond. 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