Daily Post 1301
SOFT SKILLS TRAINING, HARD SELL
Even in these hard times, the hard sell of soft skills is on. Business Continuity teaching is in full swing and so are tonnes of other online training programs hard hitting the audiences, currently for free, in the fond hope that one day it will get monetised. Had those great soft skills from innovation to leadership to empathy found any roots in us, at least some of us would have performed in a manner befitting of this crisis ridden situation. The sectors and enterprises where maximum of these trainings happen throw up the least number in crisis situations.
Similarly, communication and public speaking is being taught as a solid hard sell. The hard sell creates buyers out of nowhere and if continued for some duration of time, it becomes the desired need for all. Might be it starts being considered as a business or even social requirement. But in realty the institution though in a very nascent way, which makes all this happen are the schools. Whether a debater, public speaker or a good communicator, these schools give the most congenial atmosphere to these soft talents to germinate and grow.
No school takes the credit of communication skills, but it is right here where it is born. The communication coaches can do it on the fly. What a mockery of teaching language, content and the method of its dissemination. While they keep using the word communication and deliver none, our schools till today don’t talk of the word communication and deliver the world. Leadership of various types of varieties imparted and perfected in schools; from monitors, house captains, school captains, sports team captains and so on, for debating, quizzing and what not. These teachers and the schools can put any of these leadership coaches to shame.
The memories, nostalgia, reminisces and pride of the experiences; high points and low points remain all our lives, popping up at right times and guiding us. These coach based professional training and certification, if remembered, is for food, useless networking and all for which it should not be remembered. Working in school social service gave us much better sense of empathy than NGOs certification of the same for gaining entry into foreign universities. The skills being peddled as soft skills are ultimate human skills which are primarily created out of values, purpose, academic regime and rigour.
HARD SELL OF SOFT SKILLS CANNOT CREATE ANYTHING.