Soft skills education for students of Savannakhet Pedagogical College, Lao PDR

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Comparison of perceptions of lecturers and students of Savannakhet College of Education on soft skills and soft skills education 46

Table 2.2: Frequency of participation and interest of students at Savannakhet College of Education

with soft skills education activities organized by the school 48

Table 2.3: Comparison of lecturers' and students' assessments of the frequency of participation and interest of students at Savannakhet College of Education in soft skills education activities organized by the school 49

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Table 2.4: Soft skills often organized by Savannakhet College of Education

education for students 50

Table 2.5: Current status of using methods to organize educational activities

Soft skills for students at Savannakhet College of Education. 53

Table 2.6: Current status of organizing soft skills education activities for students at Savannakhet College of Education 54

Table 2.7: Current status of factors affecting soft skills education activities

for students at Savannakhet College of Education 56

Table 2.8: Comments from lecturers and students on factors that need to be changed in the process of soft skills education for students at the College of Education

Savannakhet 57

Table 3.1: Necessity of measures to educate KNM for school students

Savannakhet College of Education, Lao PDR 76

Table 3.2 Feasibility of measures to educate KNM for students of Savannakhet College of Education 77

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 2.1: Students' awareness of the concept of soft skills 42

Figure 2.2: Students' perceptions of the concept of soft skills education 43

Figure 2.3: Lecturers' perceptions of the concept of soft skills 44

Figure 2.4: Teachers' perceptions of the concept of soft skills education .. 45

INTRODUCTION

1. Reason for choosing the topic

In the 21st century, the world economy is developing in new conditions and contexts with the rapid development of science and technology, the explosion of information and communication technology, and the market economy gradually shifting to a knowledge-based economy. These changes directly affect the development of education in the world and completely change the educational philosophy of the 21st century. That is, "education cannot perform the traditional function of transmitting the enormous amount of knowledge of humanity, but only provides basic and fundamental knowledge, mainly focusing on training learners in skills such as: thinking, language, expression, exploiting and processing information, then applying and using that information effectively, and on that basis, turning information into knowledge"

For developing countries like Laos, the trend of educational innovation to improve quality becomes even more important because this is the key to open the door to the future, from which national education will take a big step forward, thereby helping to narrow the gap with education in the region and the world. In recent years, the Lao Ministry of Culture, Education and Sports has paid attention to the trend of innovation in education, the approach to education has gradually shifted from focusing on content to focusing on skills education for students.

Recently, the skills that society is most interested in are soft skills. Because in the face of the challenges of the international integration period, soft skills have become extremely important for each individual to survive, develop, manage and master their work and life. Students are a sensitive class and easily "receptive" to new trends and movements in science and technology, culture and society, especially in the context of international integration as it is today. Therefore, equipping students with soft skills is a timely issue.

and need to be cared for, so that they can enter a stable career, easily adapt to the new working environment, easily integrate with everyone while still maintaining their own good values.

A group of students who will become the pillars of the national education system in the future are pedagogical students. It can be said that pedagogical students in the future will become a force that "causes a ripple effect" because everyone in society has benefited from a young age from the national education system, and pedagogical students are the cadres and teachers. Therefore, pedagogical students need to have soft skills to continue to educate soft skills for their own generations of students. Moreover, in the process of reforming the country's education system, students need to have enough "internal strength" including knowledge and necessary skills, including soft skills to continue the process of fundamental and comprehensive reform of education and promote it to take place effectively.

In fact, over the years, a large number of pedagogical students have graduated mainly with specialized knowledge, but also lack pedagogical skills and soft skills to become good teachers, which significantly affects the quality of education. Many authors have researched and pointed out that one of the reasons is that the teacher training program in pedagogical universities today still focuses on equipping theory, neglecting to train professional skills for students. Looking at the world, many countries with successful education have focused on research, then conducted soft skills education for students in general and pedagogical students in particular in many diverse forms and have achieved remarkable achievements. In particular, some countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia... have successfully built a soft skills framework and successfully applied soft skills education methods for pedagogy.

To continue to make strong changes in developing soft skills for pedagogical students in Laos, as a lecturer teaching at

Savannakhet Pedagogical College, the author has conducted research on the topic "Soft skills education for teachers of Savannakhet Pedagogical College, Lao People's Democratic Republic". This is an urgent, topical topic, with practical significance for the educational, economic and social development of Laos.

2. Research purpose

Based on theoretical research and survey, evaluating the current status of soft skills education for students at Savanakhet Pedagogical College, Lao PDR, from there, proposing educational measures to develop soft skills for students of the school to meet the requirements of current education in Laos.

3. Research object and subject

3.1. Research object: Soft skills education for students of Pedagogical College

3.2. Research object: Soft skills education measures for students of Savannakhet Pedagogical College, Lao PDR

4. Scientific hypothesis

Soft skills education activities for students at Savannakhet Pedagogical College are currently very fragmented, spontaneous and not implemented according to a scientific and comprehensive process. If a system of appropriate educational measures can be built, it will contribute to improving the quality of soft skills education activities in particular as well as the quality of teacher training in general of the school.

5. Research tasks

- Research on theoretical basis of soft skills education for college students

- Assessing the current status of soft skills education for students at Savannakhet Pedagogical College.

- Proposing measures to educate soft skills for students of Savannakhet Pedagogical College

6. Limitation of research scope

- The topic focuses on studying the system of soft skills necessary for students during their study period at the Pedagogical College to facilitate students' integration into the social and professional environment after graduation.

- The research focused on 150 students of Savannakhet Pedagogical College in the departments of Natural Sciences, Foreign Languages and Preschool - Primary Education. At the same time, a survey was conducted on 50 lecturers of the above departments of the school.

7. Research methods

7.1. Methods of researching documents and educational activity products:

- Document synthesis: the author has compiled documents and textbooks related to soft skills education in and outside the country. In particular, the author has chosen to use a large number of documents and studies on soft skills education in Vietnam.

- Analyze and generalize documents: Based on the collected documents, the author conducts document research, arranges the content according to schools or research approaches to orient the theoretical issues in the thesis topic.

7.2. Investigation method : The author conducted a survey on lecturers and students of the Faculty of Natural Sciences; Faculty of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Preschool and Primary Education using a system of questionnaires and interviews.

7.3. Mathematical statistical method : The author processed the collected data using Excel 2013 software, analyzed the actual data and obtained the actual results.

Chapter 1

THEORETICAL BASIS OF SOFT SKILLS EDUCATION FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS OF EDUCATION

1.1. Overview of research problem

1.1.1.Overview of research on soft skills and soft skills education in the world

i) Research of countries around the world

Research on Soft Skills has been a field of research interest in the world since the 1980s. Each individual, when participating in practical life activities, gradually reveals limitations in integrating into relationships and labor fields. Soft skills have the ability to help each individual adapt and meet those practical requirements well. Therefore, the term soft skills appeared and the issue of research on soft skills in the profession as well as developing soft skills for workers in specific professions is of interest. The content of this research does not stop there but also has future developments with increasingly higher levels to help people adapt quickly to the practical conditions of life that are constantly developing.

Currently, most developed countries in the world have organizations responsible for research to develop soft skills for workers. For example: The US Department of Labor established the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills ; In Canada, the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada is responsible for developing skills for workers. In addition, in this country, there is also a non-profit organization called the Conference Board of Canada that specializes in researching and analyzing economic trends and the operational capacity of relevant organizations/public policies to support the development of soft skills for workers looking for jobs; In

In 2009, based on the old ministries and sectors, the issues related to adult learning and vocational skills development were taken care of by a newly established organization, the Ministry of Economic Development; In Singapore, the Workforce Development Agency is very interested in vocational skills, in which the position of soft skills is considered extremely important.

In the last two decades, there have been many research projects in the world on soft skills education for students and workers, focusing on three main directions: core soft skills; soft skills framework and soft skills education methods.

The first direction, basic soft skills required for students and workers, can be mentioned in the following projects:

Since 1997, the article “ Successful Consulting Engineering: a Lifetime of Learning ” (Patricla A.Hecker) in the International Engineering Education Journal, No. 11, has researched and clarified the necessity and importance of soft skills for consulting engineers; the role of teaching and training soft skills for consulting engineers; and solutions to improve soft skills training for engineering students.

In 2002, The Business Council of Australia

- BCA) in conjunction with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) under the auspices of the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) and the Australian National Training Authority ( ANTA) published the book Employability Skills For Future. This work identifies eight important soft skills for workers, including: communication, teamwork, problem solving, creativity and risk taking, planning and organizing work, self-management, lifelong learning and technology skills (cited in [13]).

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) also conducted research and came up with a list of soft skills for the future: communication, problem solving, and thinking.