Unfortunately, professionalism or soft skills are lost sight of during the academic protions of a course. Depending on what the subject area is, the may not be as many opportunities for the teaching of soft skills. However, soft skills are one of the most important things we do. In a "career" college setting, regardless of study area, successful graduates are going to need to interact well with others, be they coworkers or customers. As educators, we are now given the job of not only attempting to instill a "work ethic" in our students, but to teach common courtesy and simple politeness. Many young adults simply do not possess the drive to work for their education. If you have highly motivated adult learners, the teaching is a breeze. They are self motivated and can see the end goal of gaining a better job or career through education. On the other hand, the reality is that many of the students we have possess little or no desire to succeed. They "live" in the "moment", only concerning themselves with their perceived need at the time. OK, enough about the negatives. Here's what I've found to be successful. If you have a program that has lab activites, make sure that you only spend enough time in the classroom portion of the class to get the key concepts across. Even if your class is purely academic, don't drone on for hours lecturing to students. Presentations should be kept short and to the point. If you have powerpoint presentations provided by others, you should actively edit them for content that is incorrect or simply does not apply. Another key is to make your class as interactive as possible, to increase student engagement. Be sure to take a break from traditional lecture if possible, play a game like Jeopardy, have students teach others, or have small study groups or teams in the classroom. Finally, to stress the need for professionalism and customer service have guest speakers (employers) come in and give students insight into the real world and what is required of them.
