Young people lack soft skills at work: Outdoor adventure can help

12 September 2024, 10:18 | Updated: 12 September 2024, 10:20

Although artificial intelligence is being used to automate many aspects of work and daily lives, it cannot replace the vital human element of soft skills, such as the ability to connect meaningfully with others and display emotional intelligence.

Generally, soft skills comprise a range of learned behaviours, traits, goals, and motivations which are transferable across contexts. In contrast, hard skills are technical competencies specific to a particular discipline or field of work that enable the successful performance of certain academic and professional tasks.

Current research exploring the role soft skills in the UK workplace, reports that employers increasingly value soft skills such as teamwork, resilience and communication as essential for the successful deployment of young people, more so than hard, technical competencies.

Worryingly, they also report that soft skills are becoming increasingly deficient in young people transitioning into their workplace.

The biggest skills gap in areas such as communication and problem solving occur in the Gen Z (18–25-year-old) population – individuals who will account for over a third of the population by 2030.

Across the workforce, it is estimated that there will be significant soft skill deficiencies growing from 3.7 to 7 million by 2035. Despite this problem, many individuals report lack of training in soft skill development in education and business.

While the power of acquiring knowledge is unquestionable, nurturing an optimum blend of physical, social, cognitive, and emotional intelligence creates more powerful learning experiences in tune with a digital world of constant change.

As we never stop learning, soft skills can be purposefully built (within our soft-wired malleable brain) through processes of neuroplasticity to help people respond positively to the challenges of today and embolden them to face the demands of tomorrow.

The immersion of people into outdoor natural settings have been shown to result in positive psychological outcomes and mental health-related benefits akin to resilience and soft skill development.

Importantly, this is not just the case for able and motivated people; under-achievers and learners from disadvantaged backgrounds also perform better in a natural environment, especially when exposed to high-quality, stimulating activities.

It is claimed outdoor learning generates ‘social and cultural capital’ by boosting self-confidence and creativity, fostering pride and a sense of belonging, and improving cooperation, honesty, trust, and compassion.

Outdoor Adventure Education (OAE) relies upon the process of experiential learning within a dynamic, natural setting to generate adaptive soft skill sets for people.

Outdoor experiential learning represents a progressively staged mechanism whereby participants learn through direct immersion and reflection of experiences.

An array of unfamiliar experiences is purported to enable individuals to engage with risk and uncertainty.

Further, learning that activates as many senses as possible (seeing, smelling, touching, hearing, moving) which takes place in fluid, real-world learning environments, and which demands social interaction and self-guided involvement of the participants is likely to be profound. yielding better long-term recall through the creation of a soft-wired resilient brain.

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John is the Head Of Learning and Impact at Inspiring Learning. Inspiring Learning has created a Softie Test –to provide a current profile of a person’s soft skills such as self-confidence, communication, optimism, creativity and problem-solving.

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