1. Soft Skills
Jose-Luis Poza-Lujan, Alberto Conejero

2. Why Because
21th
century
companies
(public and
private)
requires employees
with a lot of skills
Soft Skills

3. What,... is a Soft Skill?
● Engineering point of view
○ Hardware
■ The machine, all that you
can have to do something
in... your work,.. in your
life
○ Software
■ All that “cover” the
hardware, and gives it
value
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
Without hardware
(Hard Skills)...
the Software (Soft
Skills) can’t work.
Without software
(Soft Skills)...
the Hardware (Hard
Skills) can’t be used.

4. What,... is a Soft Skill?
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
● Emotional point of view
○ Soft Skills are necessary to
enjoy your Hard Skills
With Soft Skills,
the Hard Skills grow

5. Who
Jose-Luis Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net)
Alberto Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)

6. Where: schools
● UPV (http://www.upv.es/contenidos/COMPTRAN/) :
○ ETSINF (Computing Engineering): www.inf.upv.es
○ Gandia (Communications): http://www.upv.es/contenidos/CGANDIA/
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)

7. When: level
Master degree
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)

8. How: taxonomy
(philosophy)
Based on the primary school
principles of protection (by
priority)
1. Don’t hurt yourself
2. Don’t allow anyone you
know to hurts you
3. Don’t hurt anyone
4. Don’t allow anyone you
know to hurt other one they
now
5. Respect unknown people
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)

9. How: taxonomy
(philosophy)
Based on the primary school
principles of convicence (by
priority)
1. Help yourself
2. Allow anyone you know to
help you
3. Help anyone
4. Allow anyone you know to
help other one they now
5. Help unknown people
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)

10. How: taxonomy
(contents)
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
Designed to be agile
● Each “iteration” has a
product as a result.
● Each arrow is a
communication process
○ With yourself
○ With your well-known
people
○ With unknown people

11. How: learning method
Based on the
Deming Circle:
● All stages are related
with the previous
stage and the next
stage.
● The circle provides a
continuous
improvement.
Useful to define
the target
Necessary to
achieve the
target
Necessary to
probe if the way
is correct
Useful to define
the result and
the next step
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)

12. How: learning method
Based on the
Deming Circle:
● All stages are related
with the previous
stage and the next
stage.
● The circle provides a
continuous
improvement.
Inspiration Action
Reflection
Production
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)

13. How: learning method
Skill box
● The box is focussed
on a skill to be
learned.
● All stages are done
by the students.
● The box provides a
continuous learning.
● Differents stages can
be used in different
boxes.
Inspiration Action
Reflection
Production
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)

14. How: skill box
Inspiration
● Used to motivate
about the topic of the
Skill Box.
● The student becomes
aware of the soft skills
related with the Skill
Box.
● Inspiration is based
on multimedia or
social content.
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
Book chapter
to be readed
Audio podcast
to listen
Video to
watch
Follow a person
on Twitter
Visit a Web on
Internet
Do a
questionnaire

15. How: skill box
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
Action
● Used to learn (or
develop) the Soft skill.
● Ever based in a
practical action.
● Face to face / in-class
activity
● Using visual thinking
to visual learning
● Gamification is
welcome.

16. How: skill box
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
Reflection
● Can be done in the
classroom, to
synthesize the work
done.
● Recommended as a
personal activity.
● All reflections should
be written to be useful
for the student.

17. How: skill box
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
Production
● As a result, all skill
boxes, provide a
“product”.
● The reflections, can be
grouped in a book, blog
or portfolio.
● The result/product must
be useful for the
student.

18. How: evaluation
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
Collecting data
● The main difficulty of the
subject is to determine
measurable parameters
● All students must write
their reflections in a
blog, or create an online
portfolio to offer their
own point of view about
the topics worked

19. How: evaluation
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
Reviewing data
● Teachers, classmates, other
students, can review the
blogs.
Each blog can be transformed
into a book to be reviewed
(between 1 and 4 pages each
Skill Box)
The main difficulty of the
subject is to determine
measurable parameters.

20. How: evaluation
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
Obtaining marks
● A quantitative approach: using
Bloom’s taxonomy to analyze
the contents of the blog/Book
● Knowledge, comprehension,
and application: minimum
requirements.
● Analysis, Evaluation, and
synthesis: used to determine if
the skill box has been useful to
the student.

21. How: evaluation
Soft Skills. Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). 2018.
J-L. Poza-Lujan (www.jopolu.net) A. Conejero (www.albertoconejero.com)
Obtaining marks
● A qualitative approach
● Using the comments to determine if the student understand the
concepts
● The final marks is a combination of both approaches
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