Portfolio 2017-18 Name: Ashley Garcia

Soft Skills: Setting Personal Goals

What are soft skills?
Soft skills are a combination of interpersonal people skills, social skills, and communication
skills. In the workplace and school environment, soft skills are considered a complement to hard
skills, which refer to a person's knowledge and technical expertise.

Your task:​ From the back side of this paper, choose two soft skills that you would like to work
on over the course of the school year.

Skill #1​:Teamwork and Collaboration

Why did you select this skill? Consider why it is important to you and why you think you need
to work on this skill.
I chose Teamwork and Collaboration because I think that working together is an important task
that many jobs include or even in school you need to be able to handle working as a group and
not taking all the work for yourself. I think I need to work on this skill because most likely in a
future job I will have, I’ll need to complete tasks with my coworkers.

Name three ways you can work on developing this skill. Consider what you can do both inside
and outside of school.
-When we have group projects I will work on listening more.
-I want to try to help others more when they need it.
-I will equally part the share of work so no one gets more or less work.

Skill #2​: Self management

Why did you select this skill? Consider why it is important to you and why you think you need
to work on this skill.
I selected this because I think it’s important to keep yourself coordinated and organized. I need
to work on this because once I’m an adult I will need to get my things in order, even now I have
to do that.

Name three ways you can work on developing this skill. Consider what you can do both inside
and outside of school.
- I will keep all of my school work assignments in order and turn everything in.
- I will try to keep myself organized at home with my daily life.
 - My everyday tasks I need to do like my homework, I will try to finish it so later i have
free time and I don’t have to worry about it.

*At the end of the year, you will reflect on your soft skills progress in your final presentation.
Common soft skills for college/career readiness:
● Self advocacy​ – Help your student learn how to identify his needs and be able to explain them to
others. Help him learn how to ask for help when he needs it.
● Responsibility​ – College students are held accountable for their actions in academic, personal
and social contexts.
● Self management​ – Time management is perhaps one of the most important keys to success in
college. However, self management includes all aspects of taking control of your life including
monitoring your own health, eating habits, self care, laundry, finances, etc.
● Communication​ – Your need to sharpen both her ability to listen and to express herself. She will
need to learn to communicate effectively with other students, roommates, and faculty members.
● Teamwork and collaboration​ – Working effectively with others is increasingly important in
today’s world. Your student will be expected to complete many projects as part of a group.
● Critical thinking and problem solving​ – Your student will be asked to work well beyond the
restatement of facts or classroom material. The ability to think critically and analytically, both in
the classroom and in other aspects of her life, will be important.
● Study skills​ – College students work more independently than many high school students and
often cover much more material. The ability to organize work, read carefully, prepare for tests
and plan and write papers is key.
● Comfort with technology​ – Technology is not only continuing to be a growing presence in all of
our lives, but is increasingly becoming a standard tool in many college classes. Your student will
need skills and comfort beyond surfing the internet. Help her do what she can to become
comfortable with online research, e-mail communication, and various software programs. These
are all tools that she will need to succeed in college.
● Tolerate ambiguity​ – Not everything taught or learned in college is black and white, or crystal
clear. Students who are better able to understand and work in a “gray” area will be less
uncomfortable and will be able to understand subtleties better.
● Comfort with diversity​ – one of the exciting and beneficial things about going to college is the
opportunity to be exposed to many different types of people and many different ways of living,
thinking and being. Students who have some intercultural competence or who are open to new
people will benefit most from the college experience.
● Innovation and creative thinking​ – Being willing and able to “think outside the box” will help
your student be able to apply new approaches to all that he does.
● Ability to work independently​ – Your student will be required to do larger blocks of work on
her own and to keep track of her work and responsibilities.
● Ability to follow directions​ – Students need to be able to follow both simple and more complex
directions. Instructions about how to do an assignment may be very specific, deadlines will
 matter, and your student will need to be able to “play by the rules”.
● Have personal goals​ – Some studies have suggested that students who have strong personal
goals, even if those goals change over time, are better able to be engaged and stay on track.
● Be engaged​ – Students who participate actively in their own education, who expect to work hard
and stay involved, will not only learn more and do better in their classes, but will also have a
more satisfying experience overall.