Soft Skills Training Program Based on Serious Games

Abstract

In the 21st century, to be successful at the workplace and to get their first job, potential employees must have both “soft skills” (“know how to be”) and “hard skills” (“know how to do”). The proposed Soft Skills Training Program (SSTP) combines multiple serious games to train future employees in four key soft skills that are most demanded by companies: intrapersonal, interpersonal, personal social responsibility, and organizational sustainability. These four MacroSoftSkills are subdivided into eight MesoSoftSkills and 21 MicroSoftSkills to establish a complete multilevel structure. The development of soft skills is measured before and after the training using five appraisal questionnaires and tests. The pilot project, aimed at young university and vocational training students, lasted 9 weeks and proved to be effective since the proposed aggregate indicators of soft skills development increased in value, with the results being different across soft skill, gender, and educational center. The contents and length of some of the training sessions should, however, be adjusted to further develop and improve the program.

Personnel Training for Common Facility Management Issues in Thermal-Energy-Storage Chiller Plant using a Serious 3D Game

“…Recently research has been focusing on actively integrating serious games, and Soft Skills Training Program (SSTP) was proposed to train intrapersonal, interpersonal, personal social responsibility, and organizational sustainability to future employees by combining multiple serious games (Sutil-Martín & Otamendi, 2021). The study conducted at a university regarding soft skill training demonstrated an increased value in soft skill development (Sutil-Martín & Otamendi, 2021). Serious games are already being used for nursing education and after reviewing 7 nursing games suggest better graphics and entertainment for students, using simple serious game technology such as quizzes for learning (Min, Min, & Kim, 2022).…”

“…A study involving a card-based strategy game for United States Air Force to allow active training in multi-domain operations utilizing air, land, and cyber domains revealed serious training games to be interesting, an effective educational and training tool including better self-reported understanding in majority of the participants (Flack, Voltz, Dill, Lin, & Reith, 2020). Recently research has been focusing on actively integrating serious games, and Soft Skills Training Program (SSTP) was proposed to train intrapersonal, interpersonal, personal social responsibility, and organizational sustainability to future employees by combining multiple serious games (Sutil-Martín & Otamendi, 2021). The study conducted at a university regarding soft skill training demonstrated an increased value in soft skill development (Sutil-Martín & Otamendi, 2021).…”

Serious games de mesa para la mejora de las habilidades socioemocionales y su efecto en la motivación de los estudiantes universitarios

“…Además, algunos estudios afirman que existen diferencias entre los niveles iniciales y finales tras el entrenamiento según el sexo de los individuos de las habilidades socioemocionales trabajadas (Sutil-Martín & Otamendi, 2021).…”

“…Compasión: mide la capacidad de preocuparse por los demás, reconocer las a las personas que sufren y mantener el equilibrio entre percibir e involucrarse en su sufrimiento (Nazir & Islam, 2020). Para la mejora y entrenamiento de las soft skills socioemocionales, instituciones y organizaciones se han servido de técnicas como el coaching o mentoring (Thompson, 2019), aprendizaje online (Tseng, et al, 2019) realidad virtual y aumentada (Papoutsi, et al, 2021)), gamificación (Módné et al, 2021, ;Shakhovska et al, 2020)), videojuegos serios (Cejudo, et al, 2019); de la Barrera, et al, 2021), gamestorming ( Feijoo Costa, et al, 2018)y juegos serios de mesa (Sutil-Martín & Otamendi, 2021).…”

Specific features of universal competences of higher education in Russia in the context of competence-based education: conceptual analysis

“…While the term 'soft skills' (soft skills ('know how to be') contrast hard skills ('know how to do') [52]) generally applies to a corporate environment, such terms as '21st century skills' (now frequently replaced by '21st century learning' ***** and '21st century competencies'), 'key competences' and 'generic competencies' were introduced for educational purposes [4] and are generally used in education ****** .…”