Soft Skills of a Higher Education Student: communicative aspect

Abstract

The article represents the results of the empirical analysis analyzes students’ soft skills, which have recently become a key element of the competitiveness of university graduates. It also provides data from all-Russian surveys of SberPodbor, Rabota.ru and the National Research University Higher School of Economics, demonstrating a clear demand from the labor market for such skills like creativity, adaptability and communicative literacy. The emphasis on the latter, already enshrined in the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education 3++, is not adequately reflected in the actual training of university graduates, which is confirmed by the feedback from employers who note a deficit of skills in public speaking, argumentation and teamwork, and university teachers. In particular, it points to the weaknesses in kinetic image, confidence and structured speech. Further, this reflects a systemic gap between declared educational standards and the practice of forming the communicative potential of higher education students. The authors propose to consider methods for diagnosing communicative potential (Ryakhovsky test, the method of diagnosing communicative and social competence KOSKOM, the method of assessing the communicative and organizational potential KOS). In addition to the above assessment methods, the authors propose to take into account the structure of a public speech, which includes five fundamental elements for effective speech construction: audio-visual, purpose, structure, maintaining contact with the audience, as well as the psycho-emotional state of the speaker. Particular emphasis is laid on the study of emotional intelligence, which serves as a cognitive-emotional foundation for soft skills, enhancing their practical application in communication, and is also considered as social capital that contributes to the successful integration of an individual into groups, organizations and society as a whole.