Skill development report “how soft skills have changed our lives”

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 000 SKILL DEVELOPMENT REPORT “HOW SOFT SKILLS HAVE CHANGED OUR LIVES” Instructor Mr Hoang Anh Duy Ms Pham Thi My Dung Course PPHE101 3 GROUP[.]

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

-000 -

SKILL DEVELOPMENT REPORT

“HOW SOFT SKILLS HAVE CHANGED OUR LIVES”

Instructor: Mr Hoang Anh Duy

Ms Pham Thi My Dung

Course : PPHE101.3 GROUP 4

June 1st 2021

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

-000 -

SKILL DEVELOPMENT REPORT

“HOW SOFT SKILLS HAVE CHANGED OUR LIVES”

Instructor: Mr Hoang Anh Duy

Ms Pham Thi My Dung

Course : PPHE101.3 GROUP 4

June 1st 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT 2

INTRODUCTION 2

LITERATURE REVIEWS 4

I Soft skills 4

1 Definition 4

2 Basic soft skills 4

II Important roles of soft skills 7

1 Analysis 7

2 Mastering soft skills 7

III Why a soft skill deficit is harmful to business success 9

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 10

FINDING AND ANALYSIS 11

I Story 11

II Analyse story 18

III Applied skills in making video 18

1 Communication skill 18

2 Time management 18

3 Positive thinking 19

4 Teamwork skill 19

RECOMMENDATION 20

CONCLUSION 21

REFERENCES 22

APPENDIX 23

ABSTRACT

The world is developing at a high pace in every aspects of life Therefore, it

is a must for students to equip themselves with enough academic knowledge and skills As a result, soft skills are becoming more and more essential, especially with the wonderful applications of four main skills not only in future work but also in study as well : Teamwork, Time/Task management, Communication and Writing

Me and my team feel so lucky to join Foreign Trade University since this University can help us learn and improve our skills We even feel more fortunate

to have chances to cultivate those four skills in the Skill Development Class of Mr.Hoang Anh Duy and Ms.Pham Thi My Dung We have been able to gain so much knowledge from them and even had chances to apply those skills through some interesting games and into real-life situations Now, this is the perfect opportunity to show what we have studied by doing a group project: making a video about the topic: “How soft skills have changed your lives”

The idea for the video stems from the fact that there are some students who are stuck in their personal problems This is the reason causing depression, anxiety and disorientation among youngsters As a result, their life, work and study are negatively affected Therefore, in our video, we hope to reflect this reality bring positivity to anyone encountering the same problems and show them how we can cope with this similar issues With the journey of our main actor from his depression, sadness to finally achieve happiness, our video will cover three main skills: Teamwork, Time management and Communication

In this report, we would like to show how the video has been handled from start to finish The following parts will be about Introduction, Literature Reviews, Research Methodology, Findings and Analysis, Recommendations/Suggestions, Conclusion, References and Appendix

INTRODUCTION

Soft skills, often called people skills or emotional intelligence, are defined as the ability to interact amicably with others They are personal attributes that can affect relationships, communication, and interaction with others Soft skills are

an essential part of improving one’s ablity to work with others and can have a positive influence on furthering your career However,soft skills are sometimes underestimated because they believe those ability are natural and can not be learned That’s why most youngsters seem to care less about this matter and pay attention more to their academic knowledge, but every skills can be accumulated through books and practical applications It is said to be difficult just because some people do not know how to develop their skills the right way, which leads

to a variery of problems that they may encounter and they have no clues to solve Therefore, our story is based on a real-life story of how soft skills have been applied effectively: The main character is having a personal problem which affects every aspects of his life Through his complicated emotions and the way soft skills has helped him to overcome the issues, we hope to inspire viewers that every problems can be easily solved once you know the correct ways

Overall, our goal is to reflect the life of some youngsters nowadays and to gain attention from society, so that nothing unfortunate will happen Furthermore, our video is expected to show the youth how to overcome emotional troubles if they are in a similar situation, therefore they will realize the importance of soft skills and will start sharpen them

*Some information about the video

 Execution time: From May to June , 2021

 Location: Private houses

 Implementer: 10 members of group 4 – High quality Foreign Business Administration – PPHE101.3

 Video title: EPIPHANY

 Language: English

 Report: 23 pages

 Video length: 9 minutes and 54 seconds

According to the UNESCO, the Soft skills (also known as non-cognative skills) are “patterns of thought, feelings and behaviours” (Borghans et al., 2008)

2 Basic soft skills

a) Communication skill

Communication is a process of transfering messages between senders ad receivers to achieve goals Communication includes: non-verbal communication and verbal communication

Communication skills is a broad soft skills category It refers to how you communicate with clients, customers, colleagues, employees, employers, vendors, partners and almost everyone connected to the concerned business

 Speaking Skills

 Presentation Skills

 Negotiation Skills

 Nonverbal communication skills

 Listening and empathizing

Key phrases used to convey time management skills are:

 Prioritizing

 Goal Setting & Management

Some examples of soft skills falling under the teamwork category are:

Leadership skills include abilities to lead a team, make decisions and work for the benefit of the company and the team keeping aside the personal viewpoints, biases, and conflicts It stems from the experience of handling projects and teams Leadership is one of the hard-skills employers look for when hiring c-level or other high ranking executives However, it is also a very important soft skill for other positions and includes:

 Team Management

 Conflict Management & Resolution

 Decision Making

 Drafting Delegation Strategies

 Drafting Motivation Strategies, etc

e) Work ethics

Work ethic is the ability to maintain proper moral values within the workplace It is an attitude that shapes the way an individual performs its job duties with high moral standards

It is an inherent attitude that an individual possesses and it allows him to make decisions and perform his duties with positive moral values that include elements like integrity, responsibility, high quality, discipline, humility and teamwork

Some examples of soft skills which come under the work ethics category are:

 Completing tasks on time

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do

or what to believe It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent

Key phrases used to convey adaptability are:

 Calm

 Optimistic

 Open Minded

 Curious, etc

Adaptability is not just about changing something or adjusting to a situation

It encompasses being able to effect changes in a course of action with smoothness and timeliness, without any major setbacks

II Important roles of soft skills

1 Analysis

Most interactions with other people require some level of soft skills At a company you might be negotiating to win a new contract, presenting your new idea to colleagues, networking for a new job, and so on We use soft skills everyday at work and developing these soft skills will help you win more business and accelerate your career progression

By contrast, a lack of soft skills can limit your potential, or even be the downfall of your business By developing strong leadership, delegation, teamwork, and communication abilities, you can run projects more smoothly, deliver results that please everyone, and even positively influence your personal life by improving how you interact with others

2 Mastering soft skills

b) Time management skill

The urgent/important matrix: An Urgent Important Matrix is a simple but effective tool for prioritizing your to-do list based on the level of urgency and

importance of each task It’s is sometimes referred to as the “Eisenhower

Matrix” or “Eisenhower Decision Matrix” and is one of the easiest time

management strategies to implement

Urgent Important Matrix template Important but Not Urgent – Plans

These are the activities that help you

achieve your long and mid-term goals

and objectives Because they aren’t

necessarily pressing for attention, we

often put them off to deal with “urgent”

issues

Urgent and Important – Crises

Important and Urgent activities are either emergencies that you couldn’t predict or those that you’ve left until the last minute and have reached crisis point

Not Urgent and Not Important –

Distractions

These activities are neither important for

achieving your long-term goals nor

urgent They are essentially distracting

you from doing things that matter

Urgent but Not Important – Interruptions

Urgent but Not Important activities are things that sap your time and energy without contributing to longer term benefits They keep you busy but have no real value

c) Positive thinking

The 3C Modules consists of Commitment – Control and Challenge is another way for to keep a bright look on life Commitment means set a positive commitment to yourself, for education, for work or anything else and do it enthusiastically and charm Control – keep your mind focused on the important,

be honest with yourself and keep your mind toward positive thinking Always Challenge yourself to be better, change old habits, look at different options

d) Teamwork skill

 Make teamwork a priority and reward teamwork

 Clarify roles, responsibilities and accountabilities

 Set clear goals

 Communicate with each other

 Make decisions together

 Build trust and get to know each other better

 Celebrate differences/diversity

 Examine and improve teamwork processes and practices

III Why a soft skill deficit is harmful to business success

1 Conflict

When a work environment lacks conflict resolution skills, unnecessary tension among co-workers causes costly delays It becomes challenging for employees to work cohesively together, rivalries waste more energy than output, and the company loses talent as people decide to disassociate themselves from the negativity and find a new job Teaching employees how to approach disagreements and continue to work together professionally will save the company time, money, and headaches

2 Productivity

Employers often pour a great deal of money and effort into the technical development of employees to encourage better productivity However, if a soft skill gap exists, poor performance will continue If employees don’t receive adequate training in all the correct areas, they won’t understand how to do their jobs or reach certain goals In turn, this leads to low morale in the workplace, higher turnover rates, low production, unsafe work environments, and increased expenses

3 Customer relations

A soft skills deficit also makes it difficult for employees to provide satisfactory customer service They must be able to communicate the value of a business when engaging with customers to build brand loyalty and turn interaction into revenue Companies will experience declining profits and missed customer opportunities if employers aren’t dedicated to the development

of customer relations skills

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Based on the literature reviews about the importance of soft skills in work environment as well as in daily life This case study focuses on contributing to previous studies by giving a clear understanding about the factors impacting on individuals in the society Specifically, we used qualitative research methods which obtained information and knowledge through actions, communications and some conflicts in this study

1 Approaches

The way we approach the topic was making a video clip about many difficulties that students had to face in their life and the way they overcame it The story through the video conveyed the meaningful messages or lessons along with brought incredible knowledge about problem and solution The reason why

we chose this topic due to its popularity to young generation nowadays The information was collected from real life and then a script was written Based on

it, our group’s members played the characters and we gathered all the members’ records to create a completed video Moreover, role playing is a technique allowing participants to explore realistic situations by interacting with other people in a managed way to develop experience and trial different strategies in a supported environment Therefore, we were able to have our first-hand experience and applied realistic solutions to the problem Especially, it is also a good preparation for similar situations which can happen in real life

2 Procedures

Through the process of completing the video and report, all members of the group enthusiastically gave their own opinions as well as participated in the video We decided to divide the team into three groups: writing report, acting and scripting groups About the report, all members had responsibility for collecting information from various sources such as Internet, documents and so

on Then three members from writing report group would gather all the information from all members of the team to create a comleted report The report was made after the video so that it could be included in the research’s findings and analysis The acting group took part in the video and they learned the script by heart before filming Due to Covid-19, we could not meet each other directly so it was quite hard to create a video which had interation among group’s members However, we tried our best to make up a video by gathering member’s records