Abstract:

The scope of this study is the analysis of an Organizational Psychology internship program and the Work of the Psychology course at a university in Curitiba (Brazil). The program offered high school adolescents from public schools soft skills development workshops, with the aim of preparing them for the world of labor. The program contributes to the fourth SDG (Sustainable Development Objective) which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Soft Skills are human interaction skills, and the set of these skills, an important range responsible for an increasingly entrepreneurial vision of the world, contributing to the citizens of the future being responsible for the environment in which they live. There is a growing demand for behavioral skills for professional practice, on the other hand, there is a considerable number of professionals looking for jobs without such skills. As a mediator, the school environment can contribute to the formation of a roll of Soft Skills in its student body. The role of formal education and the school environment promotes a discussion about the reality of formal education, which often focuses on specific subjects, neglecting the training of important skills such as critical thinking and creativity, required in adulthood. Experiential learning involves an integrative and holistic perception of learning and considers that knowledge is derived from experimentation and tested by the experiences of the learner, involves the person completely, recognizes and actively uses all relevant life experiences of the learner, including their learning experiences and promotes continuous reflection on previous experiences.

The program design was developed by students and a psychologist who graduated from the Psychology course under the supervision of a teacher who supervised the internship. The first step was the mapping of the main Soft Skills demanded by the organizations, the competencies were identified, an evaluation instrument and a program were structured with workshops on the development of Soft Skills and the development of curricula and pitches. The KOLB experiential learning circle was used as methodology, there were 8 meetings of 8 hours each, for a group of 17 adolescents students between 13 and 18 years old from public schools.

The results demonstrate that the methodology was well accepted by the adolescents, the efficiency evaluation revealed 92% of satisfaction. The Soft Skills that the adolescents were most familiar with were “Culture of Innovation”, “Creativity” and “Adoption of Digital Technologies”. Those that showed the least skills were “Cognitive Flexibility”, “Resolution of complex problems” and “Skills to work with different cultures”. At the end of the program, it was noticed that the adolescents were more self-confident and sparked interest in continuing the process of developing skills for the world of labor. As for the learning process of the trainee students, facilitators of the workshops, it was noticed an engagement from the beginning to the end of the program and the effectiveness of the internship proposal, students developed skills from identifying demands, planning, organization, conducting the workshops until evaluation of the results, including conflict resolution skills.

Keywords:

Soft skills, adolescents, workshops, labor market.