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Collaboration is a key soft skill everyone needs to develop for the workplace, demonstrated here by pupils working on a project at Hong Kong’s Nord Anglia International School. Photo: Handout

Are soft skills really more important than academics? How Hong Kong schools are moving beyond exam grades and STEM subjects to equip students for the workplace of tomorrow

  • Hong Kong’s international schools have a reputation for providing students with excellent skills in scorable subjects, but what about soft skills which cannot be measured?perfect
  • Today’s pupils are likely to have careers in a workplace dominated by automation and AI, and so must be ready for a fast-changing and increasingly digital world

In 2016, the World Economic Forum published a report, “The Future of Jobs”, which looked at employment, skills and workforce strategies for the future. Its authors asked chief human resources and strategy officers from global employers about current workforce trends and what they would mean for employment, skills and recruitment in the years to come.

One of the report’s headline findings was that experts believed that by 2021 “over one-third of skills (35 per cent) that are considered important in today’s workforce will have changed”. By 2025, “The Future of Jobs” predicted that critical thinking, complex problem-solving abilities, creativity, people management and emotional intelligence would be among the most important skills required in the workplace.

Covid-19 has accelerated this shift. The pandemic required employees and managers to find new ways to communicate when working from home and to empathise more with each other’s different living conditions when lockdowns were in force. Given the chaotic situation, problem-solving became a valuable trait, as well as emotional intelligence given the new and unforeseen stressors employees were encountering. Suddenly articles about the value of soft skills were all the rage.

The excellent reputation of Hong Kong’s international schools is in large part founded on the hard skills they rigorously instil in students – STEAM subjects and the like. But while such schools are experts at delivering on easily quantifiable things like maths scores and language proficiency, what about soft skills?

Pupils interacting with one another in class at Hong Kong’s The Harbour School. Photo: Handout

Dr Jadis Blurton, head of school at The Harbour School (THS), admits “although [soft skills] have always been important, they have historically been neglected by schools or relegated to extracurricular activities”. However, “attention to these 21st-century skills is pervasive” at The Harbour School, says Blurton, citing one of the school’s core values, “lifeworthy learning”, which encompasses various soft skills like time management, collaboration, flexibility, innovation, problem-solving, critical thinking, leadership, self-direction and communication, among others.

THS takes pride in being at the forefront of developing students’ soft skills. The school has identified seven “learner goals” that are “discussed, defined and actively noticed” throughout the school. These are: perceptiveness, inquisitiveness, self-determination, integration within yourself, integration among others, resilience and innovation.

“These soft skills are not measured at most schools,” says Blurton, “but at THS they are reported by every class and specialist teacher as well as self-scored by every student in every different class.

Students – and parents – understand that what is important is what is measured.

“The learner goals are introduced and discussed through assemblies, our morning TIDE programmes, and in everyday lessons,” Blurton adds. “Children as young as four can be found arguing about whether working collaboratively to finish a maths assignment is ‘self-determined,’ ‘resilient’ or ‘integrated among others’ – the answer being, of course, that it is a little of all three.”

At Shrewsbury International School Hong Kong, the promotion of soft skill development and articulation has come about in response to the wider recognition that “traditional academic descriptors are not a particularly effective indicator for differentiating between the likelihood that one candidate will perform more successfully than another at university or in the workplace,” according to principal Ben Keeling.

Here, at the school in Tseung Kwan O, an interconnected mix of hard and soft skills has long been a key part of their teaching, which is founded upon the knowledge-based framework afforded by the English national curriculum. “As a result, we have made a conscious decision to teach, track and monitor skill development in the following areas: critical thinking, problem-solving, innovation and collaboration,” says Keeling.

Pupils enjoy non-academic approaches at Shrewsbury International School. Photo: Handout

Another school that utilises the English national curriculum is Nord Anglia International School (NAIS) Hong Kong. Teachers here have long valued arts subjects as well as the traditional STEM ones. Emma Parker, assistant head of primary – curriculum and assessment, says that subjects like art, drama and music have “invaluable skills” before adding, “It is difficult to imagine how any technological advancement can be successful without high levels of creativity, critique and reflection – key components of the arts.”

The need for online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has sharpened NAIS’ focus on the role technology plays in our world. The school is aware that its charges are likely to live out their careers in a workplace that will be dominated by things like automation and AI.

It’s these trends that make soft skills all the more important. If computers can do all the number crunching for humans, there is less need for individuals with similar mathematical abilities. Soft skills, which computers cannot match, are thus much more precious. Not only are they valuable for education and work, they are humanising, too.

“The future of work and the skills needed for the 21st century are widely acknowledged to include soft skills as core attributes,” says Naima Charlier, director of teaching and learning at NAIS. “Alongside important values such as the belief that people should be treated equally and fairly, and developing an international outlook – so important in the interconnected world we live in – soft skills are what could be described as those skills that make us human. They are the ones that separate us from computers which are increasingly taking on roles and jobs traditionally held by people.

“In developing their soft skills, we are preparing our students for success in a fast-changing and increasingly digital world.”

But what of Covid-19’s impact? Writing previously in the Good Schools Guide, Katrina Rozga, director of therapy and counselling at Hong Kong’s Jadis Blurton Family Development Centre and a registered therapist, shone a spotlight on the “social malnutrition” caused by the pandemic and discussed how factors such as reduced social contact, isolation, higher rates of stress and anxiety, and an overall lack of normal socialisation “have all contributed to children’s lagging development”.

Teaching pupils soft skills under these circumstances has been extremely challenging. “Just talk to anyone who works with children under the age of five,” remarks Shrewsbury’s Keeling. “Given the nature of these particular skills, rehearsed interaction – both formally constructed and socially emergent – plays a critical role in successful development. While an online construct doesn’t prohibit social interaction per se, the combined response to Covid-19 in Hong Kong has made it more challenging for young people to interact fluidly to the extent that would ordinarily be best recommended.”

Older children appear more resilient. Charlier has been deeply impressed by the adaptability of NAIS students as they continue to work in teams and collaborate on projects virtually. “We cannot replace face-to-face interactions with virtual, but we have seen our students experience success in developing the language, manners and communication mechanisms of virtual team work,” she says.

Students at the school, particularly the older ones, took the initiative to create shared documents, utilise breakout rooms, share screens and put to use the various apps and digital platforms available to them.

So impressive was their shift to online learning that Charlier says she believes that her pupils have matched or even outperformed the work done by adults who had to manage a similar move to remote working.

Looking beyond academic skills at Shrewsbury International School. Photo: Handout

The Harbour School also received surprisingly upbeat feedback regarding the use and development of soft skills during this tricky time – not to mention the discrepancy between versatile kids and more inflexible adults.

“Interestingly, in a recent interview with some of our students they noted that many of these skills were enhanced during Covid,” says Blurton. “They reported that they felt more resilient, self-reliant, innovative and flexible, and they felt that they had improved their ability to manage their time on their own. It was good to hear that some students did not necessarily agree with the dire predictions made by worried adults.”

Blurton was also keen to emphasise that soft skills and STEAM subjects should not be seen as mutually exclusive. According to the head of The Harbour School, effectively teaching STEAM subjects will enhance and strengthen a pupil’s soft skills, and vice versa.

“At the same time,” she tells us, “I think there is a trend towards recognising that not all students will be or should be focused ‘almost exclusively’ on STEAM subjects. Some students are writers, dancers or filmmakers, and while they need a firm background in science and the ability to problem-solve, they may benefit more from spending time in their area of interest or expertise than taking advanced calculus.

“That is, I think the trend is not away from STEAM but more towards an acceptance and celebration of individual differences in goals and abilities.”

The interconnectedness of STEAM and soft skills is an opinion shared by both Parker and Keeling. The former tells us: “Soft skills are fundamental to success within STEAM subjects. Without the ability to effectively work under pressure, manage time and be decisive, it would be impossible to complete STEAM-based projects.

Meanwhile Keeling believes schools have been “overreliant” on academic performance and exam grades when it comes to assessing pupils and their abilities.

“We will soon see a revolution in the way in which we assess the performance and potential of young people,” he adds.

Read more of the South China Morning Post’s Good Schools Guide
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