Abstract:

The objective of this paper is to present a qualitative study developed in the Soft Skills Lab of a public university between Fev20/Feb21. From a universe of students of the 1st year of all graduations we choose a convenience sample of students (597) from different areas (management, marketing, finance and accounting, architecture, psychology, sociology, social work) attending 3 of the 24 transversal curricular units we offer for their study plans, that all students must choose to complete 6 ECTs. The units were Conflict Management, Stress Management and Teamwork.

The intentionality of the choice had to do with the current moment of changing the pedagogical model during the confinement caused by the pandemic Covid19 and how we could overcome the challenge of preparing students in these soft skills that require a presence in the classroom, due to the dynamics and exercises that usually took place.

After the adjustments made to the online and hybrid model that was required of us, we were a little skeptical about the results, but the fact is that the results were very positive, the students, despite all the difficulties, were committed to their learning, these curricular units were of great importance to give them autonomy, self-confidence, motivation for the future, emotional skills and in some cases even alerts for more complex situations.

This leads to the perception that comprehensive training of university students requires them to be taught both the theoretical and practical knowledge relating to an area/profession, but also methodologies aimed at promoting autonomy in learning, creativity for problem solving, commitment to society, and persistence in the face of adversity giving them the capacity to be resilient. This experience also gives us signs that training in higher education must have a clear intention of strengthening students’ personal development, promoting their capacity to recognize and interact with the environment context in a responsible, participatory, innovative, ethical, and socially meaningful manner.

Keywords:

Behavioral soft skills, engaged students, online learning.