The U.S. Department of Labor Office of Employment Disability Policy (ODEP) continued to flesh out its “Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success” curriculum with the release of free video vignettes last week.
ODEP timed the release of the video series to coincide with National Disability Employment Awareness month, according to the October 26 press release. And although the videos were produced by the DOL office that provides career training and education for people with disabilities, the press release makes it clear that any young person seeking employment can benefit from the lessons found in “Skills to Pay the Bills”:
Although employers have identified these skills as being among the most important competencies young workers need, three-quarters of those participating in a survey by the Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the Society for Human Resource Management ranked new high school graduates as deficient in soft skill areas.
Soft skills areas are identified as Attitude, Teamwork, Communication, Problem-Solving, Networking, and Professionalism. Each of the videos conveys quite a bit of useful information in less than three minutes (sometimes less than two), and all of them include audio description and close-captioning functionality for people with visual or hearing disabilities.
The ones that are sure to engage young people the most are those that inject a bit of humor, particularly when the actors portray characters who lack the skills to pay the bills. The young man in the Enthusiasm and Attitude video seems to be having a particularly good time in his role as a poorly prepared applicant going to a job interview. I wonder if the woman playing the interviewer was able to keep a straight face:
The Communication video is also humorous in its exaggerated use of the smartphone-inspired shorthand style for talking adopted by the cashier. But what I appreciated about the video was not just the lesson it taught to the employee about customer relations, but also the fact that it emphasized listening as a crucial component of the Communication soft skill. Note how the supervisor is friendly but firm with Lydia, which helps Lydia understand why “speaking in text” isn’t appropriate for the type of work she’s doing:
The “Skills to Pay the Bills” section of the ODEP website already contains downloadable PDFs with information and activities that enable groups and individuals to work on each skill. These six new videos are sure to generate good dialogue about the importance of these soft skills in looking for, getting, and keeping a job.
Comments?
Image by U.S. Dept. of Labor.