The company survey conducted by “Tele2” and “Norstat” revealed that, from the point of view of employers, the most important soft skills or personal skills are communication skills, critical thinking, the ability to work in a team, leadership, the ability to self-organize and make decisions. At the same time, 89% of company representatives admit that soft skills are important for all job positions – it doesn’t matter if you are a project manager, director, engineer or equipment operator.
Survey data of companies and students was presented at the opening event of the 17th season of the “Golden Fish Championship”, which was attended by Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, Minister of Education and Science Anda Čakša, Advisor to the Minister of Economy on Digitization and Innovation Ieva Siliņa, around 100 young people, entrepreneurs and education sectors representatives.
“Today’s world is changing rapidly, and the more digitized we become, the more important our personal skills, or soft skills, become, regardless of the field in which we operate. Personal skills can best be developed in school, extracurricular activities, family and business cooperation. The “Golden Fish Championship” is also an excellent example of such cooperation aimed at the development of personal skills,” says Minister of Education and Science Anda Čakša.
The survey of entrepreneurs found that 63% of company representatives admit that young people entering the labor market do not have sufficiently developed personal skills. Employers note the ability to solve problems and conflicts (35%), resilience to stress (34%), the ability to self-organize and plan time (34%), and critical thinking (33%) as the most missing skills among young people.
On the other hand, the data of the youth survey conducted by the “Golden Fish Championship” reveal that personal skills are not properly developed in schools – this is what 59% of young people aged 16 to 19 think. According to them, such skills as stress resistance, self-motivation, ability to adapt to changes, as well as the ability to solve problems and conflicts are least developed at school.
“My wish for you is to never give up, be active and use the opportunities that life gives you. I am sure that you can and will succeed,” says Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš.
It should be noted that both company representatives and young people believe that personal skills should primarily be developed in schools. 52% of young people and 72% of company representatives think so.
“Survey data show that both young people and business representatives believe that personal skills are important in the labor market and that their importance will continue to grow in the future. There is often an unreasonable expectation that these skills will be taught to young people in school. However, these skills cannot be developed at school, this is also recognized by company representatives – because it means not simply learning new information, but thoroughly working with yourself, cooperating with others to achieve goals. Therefore, for a better future of young people, it is important that other parties are also involved in the development of these skills. For this reason, we are holding the “Golden Fish Championship” for the 17th year in a row, which is aimed at the development of soft skills of young people. These mental and sports games are intended for the development of self-initiative, teamwork, situation solving and leadership abilities,” says Valdis Vancovičs, chairman of the board of “Tele2”.
The survey of companies in cooperation with “Norstat” was conducted in March of this year and 539 companies participated in it. The youth survey was conducted in March, interviewing 341 young people aged 16 to 19.
