Overview
Overview of Project
The course is titled, Interpersonal Skills: Making a Good Impression in the Business World. The designers of the course are Lynn Halverson, Lindsay Mangieri, and Jennifer Roloff. The purpose of this unit is to better prepare high school seniors to enter the workforce by teaching them how to present a professional image through appearance, behavior, and language.
TOPIC RATIONALE
The rationale for creating this course is to assist Woodstock High School in fulfilling its obligations imposed by the BRIDGE Act signed into law in May of 2010. BRIDGE, Building Resourceful Individuals to Develop Georgia’s Economy, mandates that all middle and high school students receive regularly scheduled, age-appropriate career counseling. Upon graduation, students are expected to be prepared to go to college or enter the workforce. According to the Georgia Department of Labor, a large portion of workforce-ready is developing good interpersonal skills. The department states that 85% of Georgia employers surveyed say that poor soft skills are an issue at their company.
The proliferation of technology has caused the workforce to need new communication and interpersonal skills. In the past hard skills, or specific knowledge were emphasized, whereas in the today’s economy soft skills or people skills have risen in importance. Dave Curry, Director of Career and Technical Education at Milton Hershey School says, “Employability skills are as critical to getting a job as anything students could learn in the classroom. Teaching these skills in the classroom and providing authentic work experiences where they can implement what they learned is very important to their development (Milton Hershey School., 2018).”
Sarah Wood of diverseeducation.com reports a recent study exposed that four in 10 corporations and almost half of academic institutions believe that recent graduates lack workplace soft skills. Wood also reports that nearly eight in 10 American adults agree that if there is not a development of a more talented workforce, the United States will fall behind other countries. Poll authors of a recent Gallup-Lumina Foundation survey wrote, “While student success may depend on mastery of content in core subject areas such as math and reading, it also depends on more than knowledge of core content, critical thinking, creativity, communication and other soft skills, as well as student physical and social well-being,[which] are also necessary for future success in higher education and in the workplace (2018).”
Dr. Cheryl Talley, associate professor of neuroscience at Virginia State University believes that K-12 education’s focus on standardized testing, which fails to assess soft skills, is a major reason for the lack of soft skills in students. “Businesses are learning that [GPA] was an artificial measure of how successful the student could be on the job. It is an easy measure to have, to assess and to look at on the resume. But if this wasn’t correlating with how successful you’d be on the job, then it’s an artificial measure (Wood, 2018).”
Education leaders Richard Murnane and Frank Levy in their book entitled “Teaching the New Basic Skills. Principles for Educating Children To Thrive in a Changing Economy” propose restructuring our education system by proposing six new basic skills based on good business management, two of which are focused on the development of interpersonal skills: the ability to work in groups with persons of different backgrounds; and the ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing (Murnane & Levy, 1996).
The proliferation of technology has caused the workforce to need new communication and interpersonal skills. In the past hard skills, or specific knowledge were emphasized, whereas in the today’s economy soft skills or people skills have risen in importance. Dave Curry, Director of Career and Technical Education at Milton Hershey School says, “Employability skills are as critical to getting a job as anything students could learn in the classroom. Teaching these skills in the classroom and providing authentic work experiences where they can implement what they learned is very important to their development (Milton Hershey School., 2018).”
Sarah Wood of diverseeducation.com reports a recent study exposed that four in 10 corporations and almost half of academic institutions believe that recent graduates lack workplace soft skills. Wood also reports that nearly eight in 10 American adults agree that if there is not a development of a more talented workforce, the United States will fall behind other countries. Poll authors of a recent Gallup-Lumina Foundation survey wrote, “While student success may depend on mastery of content in core subject areas such as math and reading, it also depends on more than knowledge of core content, critical thinking, creativity, communication and other soft skills, as well as student physical and social well-being,[which] are also necessary for future success in higher education and in the workplace (2018).”
Dr. Cheryl Talley, associate professor of neuroscience at Virginia State University believes that K-12 education’s focus on standardized testing, which fails to assess soft skills, is a major reason for the lack of soft skills in students. “Businesses are learning that [GPA] was an artificial measure of how successful the student could be on the job. It is an easy measure to have, to assess and to look at on the resume. But if this wasn’t correlating with how successful you’d be on the job, then it’s an artificial measure (Wood, 2018).”
Education leaders Richard Murnane and Frank Levy in their book entitled “Teaching the New Basic Skills. Principles for Educating Children To Thrive in a Changing Economy” propose restructuring our education system by proposing six new basic skills based on good business management, two of which are focused on the development of interpersonal skills: the ability to work in groups with persons of different backgrounds; and the ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing (Murnane & Levy, 1996).
DESCRIPTION OF CONTEXT AND LEARNERS
The course is designed to be delivered to high school seniors at Woodstock High School every Friday during a 30-minute class titled TAA, Teachers as Advisors. The 2019 senior class consisted of 612 learners with an 87.8% graduation rate and 24.8% of the students receive nutrition assistance through the School Breakfast Program, SBP, and the National School Lunch Program, NSLP. The largest ethnicity represented is Caucasian at 63.7%, the second largest is Hispanic at 17.8%, and the third largest is African American at 11%.
NEEDS ASSESSMENT
The purposed lessons will take students prior knowledge of professionalism and interpersonal skills and connect new information. It will also allow time for reflection and practice. The reflection time will challenge students to modify their new knowledge to fit their personality and careers. The practice time will allow them opportunities to make sense of the new information, allowing for transfer from school to work. Moving from understanding professionalism and interpersonal skills to utilizing these skills in the workforce will help close the gap of soft skills knowledge noted by the Georgia Department of Labor and the BRIDGE Bill.
REFERENCES
A Comprehensive Guide to Email Etiquette for High Schoolers. (2019, June 20). Retrieved from
https://blog.collegevine.com/a-Comprehensive-guide-to-email-etiquette-for-high-schoolers/
Doyle, A. (2018, September 01). Apply for a Summer Job Using one of These Sample Cover Letters. Retrieved July 12, 2019, from
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/summer-job-email-cover-letter-example-2060221
Georgia Department of Education, Data and Reporting. (March 17, 2019). Enrollment by Ethnicity/Race and Gender. Retrieved
From https://oraapp.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/fte_pack_ethnicsex_pub.entry_form
Georgia Department of Education, Data and Reporting. (October 2, 2018). Free and Reduced Price Meal Eligibility. Retrieved
From https://oraapp.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/fte_pack_frl001_public.entry_form
Georgia Department of Labor. Employer Summit Survey. Retrieved from
https://georgiabest.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/employer-summit-survey-results.pdf
Hofileña, F. D., Schrock, K., & Stockman, A. (2015, April 26). 10 Creative Pre-assessment Ideas You May Not Know. Retrieved from
http://www.brilliant-insane.com/2015/04/10-creative-pre-assessment-ideas-you-may-not-know.html
Milton Hershey School. (2018, February 12). 8 Employability Skills That Prepare High Schoolers for the 21st Century Workforce.
Retrieved from https://mystudentvoices.com/8-employability-skills-that-prepare-high-schoolers-for-the-21st-century-
workforce-86744c3fc7b2
Murnane, R. J., & Levy, F. (1996). Teaching the new basic skills: Principles for educating children to thrive in a changing Economy.
New York: Free Press.
Pre-assessment Ideas - Differentiation & LR Information for SAS Teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://sites.google.com/site/lrtsas/differentiation/5-preassessment-ideas
The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, Georgia School Grade Report. Retrieved June 21, 2019 from
https://schoolgrades.georgia.gov/woodstock-high-school
Wood, S. (2018, August 03). Recent Graduates Lack Soft Skills, New Study Reports. Retrieved from
https://diverseeducation.com/article/121784/
https://blog.collegevine.com/a-Comprehensive-guide-to-email-etiquette-for-high-schoolers/
Doyle, A. (2018, September 01). Apply for a Summer Job Using one of These Sample Cover Letters. Retrieved July 12, 2019, from
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/summer-job-email-cover-letter-example-2060221
Georgia Department of Education, Data and Reporting. (March 17, 2019). Enrollment by Ethnicity/Race and Gender. Retrieved
From https://oraapp.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/fte_pack_ethnicsex_pub.entry_form
Georgia Department of Education, Data and Reporting. (October 2, 2018). Free and Reduced Price Meal Eligibility. Retrieved
From https://oraapp.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/fte_pack_frl001_public.entry_form
Georgia Department of Labor. Employer Summit Survey. Retrieved from
https://georgiabest.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/employer-summit-survey-results.pdf
Hofileña, F. D., Schrock, K., & Stockman, A. (2015, April 26). 10 Creative Pre-assessment Ideas You May Not Know. Retrieved from
http://www.brilliant-insane.com/2015/04/10-creative-pre-assessment-ideas-you-may-not-know.html
Milton Hershey School. (2018, February 12). 8 Employability Skills That Prepare High Schoolers for the 21st Century Workforce.
Retrieved from https://mystudentvoices.com/8-employability-skills-that-prepare-high-schoolers-for-the-21st-century-
workforce-86744c3fc7b2
Murnane, R. J., & Levy, F. (1996). Teaching the new basic skills: Principles for educating children to thrive in a changing Economy.
New York: Free Press.
Pre-assessment Ideas - Differentiation & LR Information for SAS Teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://sites.google.com/site/lrtsas/differentiation/5-preassessment-ideas
The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, Georgia School Grade Report. Retrieved June 21, 2019 from
https://schoolgrades.georgia.gov/woodstock-high-school
Wood, S. (2018, August 03). Recent Graduates Lack Soft Skills, New Study Reports. Retrieved from
https://diverseeducation.com/article/121784/