By Erik Christensen Employers demand a talent pool armed with both hard and soft skills. Sadly, the focus on development of the soft skills ends somewhere between kindergarten and college. This Magna 20-Minute Mentor discusses core power skills which include: teamwork, communication, positive attitude, critical thinking, professionalism, and time management. You’ll also learn a four phase approach to integrating soft-skill education into a curriculum and how to design related activities to unleash the full potential of your students. LEARNING GOALS After this program, participants will be able to: Have an increased awareness of the need to integrate soft skills into the curriculum Learn how to infuse curriculum with activities that focus on developing soft skills but complement the hard skills they are teaching in the class Be able to consider ways to integrate soft skill development directly into the curriculum, develop a new, standalone course, or offer as continuing workforce education (CWE) program offering TOPICS COVERED What are Soft Skills? Definition and examples Other names for soft skills Difference between soft and hard skills Why teach Soft Skills? Disconnect between students and employer expectations Importance employers attribute to soft skills What employers are looking for How to teach Soft Skills: Learning Content Implementation Options Examples of teaching soft skills Initial discussion Activity Conclusion Extension Activity (assessment)