The Surprising Truth About the Workforce Gap

…and the secret reason for it. Why Soft Skills are Lacking and What You Can Do About It.

Soft Skills are Lacking

Studies often show a gap between skills desired by employers and skills that workers possess, with soft skills often lacking. Some studies show 60% of employers think applicants are lacking communication, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and other soft skills. A Time article about the soft skills gap.

The Secret Reason: Why is there a lack of soft skills in the workforce? We aren’t teaching them!

Take a look the top 10 skills employers want.  As I worked on this series of posts with links to resources to learn the skills, it became painfully obvious to me that:

1) there aren’t enough of these resources.

2) there is a large gap between what employers want and what is taught.

The Bad News

Many of the top 10 skills employers want are not often taught in traditional education.

Were you taught goal setting and time management in school? Did you have a class in communication, understanding emotions and problem solving? You may have learned a little about these things along the way, but these skills are rarely purposely taught.

And not only are these skills important to employers, many are critical to success in other areas of our life…and they usually aren’t being taught.

That really doesn’t make sense to me.

We say we need workers with these skills, that we need to increase employment, but we don’t take the steps needed to make it happen.

Why Aren’t Soft Skills Taught? Teaching soft skills may not be easy…but it can and should be done.

The Good News

Can you imagine a world full of people living at maximum potential? Life is so much better when people know what their talents are and how they want to use them, do work they love, earn the money they need, communicate well, understand and manage emotions, have strong relationships and friendships, develop physical strength and energy, connect with spiritual beliefs, develop character, and set goals and manage time effectively.

I believe these skills can be learned and developed for an optimal life and a better world.

Engagement at Work

Gallup surveys frequently show low levels of engagement at work. Will increased skills contribute to higher engagement? I believe it will.

What You Can Do About It

If you believe this too and want to get involved, you may want to connect with others interested in personal development by forming your own Whole Life Fitness group. Consider setting work goals, selecting learning activities for a personal development plan, and developing work skills.

About dailyplanit

I seek to create order from the chaos of complex information. Join me at the Daily PlanIt to gain insights, inspiration, and information to increase skills for a better life. I unlock the power of teaching reading with phonics in the pursuit of literacy at www.phonicspow.com. In my spare time I explore books and movies, often choosing titles available on both screen and page.