Fluent Essays

Two files attached below one is the worksheet and one is a file you need to read only to help with the worksheet                            Top skills employees seek in 2019 https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-strategy/linkedin-most-in-demand-hard-and-soft-skills                        Shifts happens 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u06BXgWbGvA Why Do “Basics?” Assignment Assignment Directions Read the ‘Why Do I Have to Do “Basics?”’ topic of the course materials for this unit/week and answer the following questions. 1. Under the ‘Employability’ sub-topic, you have the list of 10 top skills that employers look for when hiring. In your opinion, which THREE (3) of these is the most important for work and life in today’s world and why? Write at least TWO (2) sentences for each explaining your reasoning. (12 points, 4 points each) i. ii. iii. 2) Is there ONE (1) skill from your selected list of three (or from the others on the list of 10) that you feel you are particularly good at? How do you know that this is one of your strengths? Write no less than TWO (2) sentences to provide an example of a time when you used this skill to your success. (5 points) 3) Is there ONE (1) skill from your selected list of three (or from the others on the list of 10) that you feel you can work at to improve and develop further? Why do you feel that this is a particular weakness? Write no less than TWO (2) sentences to explain. (5 points) 4) Since transferrable skills, like “hard skills,” are sharpened through practice, reflect on which General Education classes might help you develop the skills you need to succeed. Use the Student Planning Software to learn of the general education classes required for your major and the electives you could choose. Follow the directions to access the Student Planning Software and then answer the question below. Student Planning Software Access Directions i. Log into your OCCC portal at www.occc.edu using your student email/password ii. Go to the Self Service tab, choose Academic Plan & Registration, and then click on Planning and Registration. iii. You will see the home screen of the MineOnline Self Service. Choose the Student Planning tab.  iv. This will bring you to the dashboard of Student Planning. You will be able to see the major(s) you have officially declared at OCCC, you current GPA, as well as your current schedule of classes. v. Click on the ‘My Progress’ tab/link on this page. There you will see a list of all the classes required for your degree program vi. Under ‘Requirements,’ look for the list of General Education Courses. For many of you, you might have already planned your classes with your Student Success Advisor and will see the courses you have chosen. If you have not made an academic plan as yet, click on the course number to read more about it in the Course Catalog. If there is no class listed (electives), click on the ‘Search’ button to see all the courses that would fulfill that requirement. Pick a class (or classes) that you find interesting and which would help you build the skills you have identified above as needing improvement. Click on ‘Add Course to Plan,’ and select a term, if you want to save it to discuss with your Student Success Advisor later. If you need additional help with the software, go to http://www.occc.edu/get/student-planning.html for helpful video tutorials From the General Education classes listed on your ‘My Progress’ page of the Student Planning Software, select THREE (3) and make a note in the table below of the Status (whether planned, in-progress, complete, or blank if unplanned), Course Number and Name, Term, and Credits for each. (6 points, 2 points each). Status Course Number and Name Term Credits i ii iii 5. Which skill(s) of the 3 that you have identified as most important in Question 1 (or from the others on the list of 10 in the course materials) would you get to learn and practice in EACH of the 3 General Education courses you have noted in the table above? Write no less than TWO (2) sentences each to explain. (12 points, 4 points each) i. ii. iii. 6. Which General Education class(es) from your selection would allow you to practice the skill(s) that you have identified in Question 3 above as needing improvement? How would this class help you to practice the skill? Write no less than TWO (2) sentences to explain. (5 points) 7. From the ‘Why Do I Have to Do “Basics?” discussion in this unit/week’s course materials, you have learned that today’s world of work requires a person to have a breadth of knowledge and the ability to apply one area of learning to another in order to innovate and solve problems. Consider now what Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind,* writes regarding the type of people and leaders that the jobs and careers in the decades ahead will demand: “The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person…computer programmers, who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But…the future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind—creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning-makers…These people…will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.” * Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (New York: Riverhead Books, 2006) 1. Now think about what you have learned from the discussion under the ‘Adaptability’ and ‘Broad-Based Education’ sub -topics of ‘Why Do I Have to Do “Basics?”’ in this unit/week’s course materials and answer the following questions: a. Does Pink’s vision of the 21st century worker relate in any way to Seligo’s discussion of IBM and the “I” and “T-shaped” persons? Discuss by writing no less than FIVE (5) sentences. (10 points) b. Do you see any connection between the facts and figures presented in the Shift Happens 2019 video included in the ‘Adaptability’ sub-topic and the need for the type of worker Pink describes as suited for 21st century jobs? Discuss by writing no less than FIVE (5) sentences. (10 points) Page 1 of 4 Page 4 of 4 Are the general education classes or "basics" really necessary in college? Students all too often complain that the "basics" are a waste of time and money—what use is history to a nursing student, why should an art major take math classes? College should be about focusing on the major, not "gen ed" classes. Yet every accredited college and university in the country requires them. Why is that? Here are three vitally important, interrelated reasons: 1. Employability When hiring, employers look for a combination of the so-called "hard" and "soft" skills. "Hard skills" refer to the technical skills you might acquire from studying your major and the subject-specific knowledge you gain by specializing in a particular field. Of equal, if not greater, significance are the so-called "soft-skills," which refer to how you approach, think about, and conduct yourself on the job. In other words, "soft skills" reveal your personality traits, your cognitive and reasoning capabilities, and your collaborative and communicative abilities. Since they are neither imperceptible nor inconsequential, as the term "soft" tends to suggest, a more appropriate term for this category might be transferrable skills, abilities that apply across subjects and/or fields and which are required to navigate all aspects of work and life.   According to the yearly list that LinkedIn compiles from surveying thousands of job advertisements, the following are the  top soft skills employers seek in 2019: 1.   Creativity 2.   Persuasion 3.   Collaboration/Team work 4.   Adaptability 5.   Time Management Other contenders from previous years and similar lists include: 6.   Communication (verbal and written) 7.   Critical/Independent Thinking 8.   Analytical Reasoning 9.   Leadership and cultural awareness 10. Attention to Detail How do college graduates gain these vitally important transferrable skills, which frequently trump technical knowledge? In large part, it is through the "basics." General education classes are primarily designed to help students foster transferrable skills. Abilities like critical/analytical thinking, innovation or creative problem solving, effective communication, and other "soft skills" are not inherent to us; they are not traits we are either just born with or have to live without. Rather, just as we acquire "hard skills" through formal instruction and education within our majors or disciplines, "soft skills" need to be taught, learned, and practiced. It is through the general education courses in college that students learn "soft skills," have the chance to practice them repeatedly within the context of various disciplines, and gain mastery, preparing them better for the world of work and life after graduation. 2. Adaptability The world we live in today changes more quickly than we can imagine!  Watch this video and think about the staggering pace of ongoing change:  Shift Happens 2019 What does the video's content mean for today's college student? Due to unprecedented  technological advances, careers that existed two decades ago are no more, and new ones emerge to take their place. To keep up with these exponential shifts and changes, students entering the work force over the next few decades need to be more informed and more adaptable than ever. Colleges and universities strive to prepare students for the inevitable shifts and transformations. Drew Faust, former President of Harvard University, astutely noted that college education today must prepare students for "their sixth job, not their first job."* The Shift Happens video that you watched provides the astonishing fact that today's learners might hold more than 10-14 jobs even before they turn 40!  Within such a rapidly changing world, focusing too narrowly within a particular discipline or major would prevent adapting and growing. Narrowly-focused technical training and subject-based knowledge can become outdated quickly. When this happens, students can fall back on their broad-based general education foundation, which equips them to re-learn, re-imagine, reinvent, and thrive.  *quoted in Fareed Zakaria, In Defense of a Liberal Education (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 2015), 79, 180.  3. Broad-Based Education IBM hires thousands of college graduates every year. Jim Spohrer, head of the company's university partnerships, oversees these hires and the subsequent training that the new recruits receive. Jeffrey J. Selingo, in his book, There Is Life After College, recounts his conversation with Spohrer about what IBM looks for in a candidate for a job: "As we walked toward his office, Spohrer told me that when the Almaden Research Center [the company's massive innovation lab in Silicone Valley] opened [in 1986], IBM recruited candidates who were mostly expert in one subject. They could write computer code, for instance, and do it really well...Spohrer called them "I-shaped people." "Those adept in only one subject don't cut it in this modern work environment...Today employers need different kind of talent: they want T-shaped individuals."* The "T-shape," Seligo goes on to explain, refers to a person's broad-based capabilities. The vertical line of the letter represents the candidate's depth of understanding in a single area: subject, skill, field, industry. It is the same as the "I-shaped person." The horizontal bar of the "T" is critical as it represents the candidate's cross-disciplinary capabilities: working across subject areas, taking chances by considering different perspectives, and applying divergent ideas and learning towards innovation. Seligo notes that according to Sporer, the "T-shaped individual" is someone who is unafraid to experiment, to make mistakes, and then to learn what went wrong and try again. The broad-based general education curriculum goes a long way in preparing college students to become "T-shaped persons."  * Jeffrey J. Selingo, There Is Life After College: What Parents and Students Should Know about Navigating School to Prepare for the Jobs f Tomorrow (New York: HarperCollins, 2016) 31-33. Are the "basics" really necessary? The response to that question should be a resounding "yes," if your goal is to gain both the depth and the breadth of knowledge that is necessary for success in college and life today. This may not be the goal of every college student. For many, a focused technical training might be all that they seek at any given point in time, and that is an equally valid pursuit. But, if your aspiration is to acquire essential transferrable skills, prepare to adapt and succeed in a constantly changing economy and environment, and gain a broad understanding and view of the complex world we navigate, then the the "basics" are integral. They are not classes to just be checked off a list. General Education courses help you learn how to learn and prepare you for lifelong learning. They are the bedrock of what distinguishes you as an educated person.