Soft skills: analysis of development in higher education acquires and ways of implementation in the educational process

Formulation of the problem. In recent years, the concept of «soft skills» has become an integral part of the global labor market in various sectors of the economy and society. International and national studies confirm the importance of universal skills, which are called «21st century skills». However, in practice, higher education institutions cannot always create conditions for their comprehensive development. Therefore, one of the main tasks of training students of higher education in modern conditions is to find ways for targeted and systematic development of soft skills. The purpose of the article is to assess the degree of development of soft skills of higher education students in the educational process and to justify the pedagogical conditions that can contribute to increasing the efficiency of their development. The results. The study of the degree of development of the sought-after soft skills of higher education students in the educational process was carried out using a developed questionnaire in Google Form. The questions were formulated so that students, based on their own opinion, determined the degree of development in the educational process of each of the proposed soft skills on a 10-point scale. Students of 1-6 years of study of V.N. Kharkiv National University took part in the survey. Karazina (87 people). The results of the conducted empirical research confirm the need for purposeful and systematic development of soft skills demanded by the modern labor market of higher education graduates. According to the students, such soft skills as stress resistance and flexibility, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and communication skills need the greatest development. Pedagogical conditions and prospects for the development of soft skills are related to the end-to-end implementation of complex measures in the educational process: filling normative educational disciplines with a clear theoretical and practical context for the development of soft skills; transformation of teaching, shift of emphasis towards innovative methods and forms of education, which contain potential opportunities for the development of universal competences of higher education seekers; deep awareness by teachers of their mission in the development of the required soft skills of students; introduction of interfaculty and optional disciplines such as «Soft skills - the formula for success», starting from the first year of study, which will gradually expand the range of universal competencies of the future specialist; introduction of soft skills by conducting mandatory trainings with students; the organization of a summer school that will specialize in the development of students’ soft skills, where in a relaxed atmosphere under the guidance of professional psychologists, coaches and other specialists, students will be able to acquire modern knowledge and the necessary skills. Conclusions. The obtained results confirmed our assumption that the educational space contributes to the development of soft skills among students of higher education in a fragmentary, «spot» way. The path to the systematic and planned introduction of soft skills in the educational space is very difficult and so far takes place at the level of individual disciplines. Therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive policy in this field. Pedagogical conditions and prospects for the development of soft skills are related to the end-to-end implementation of the proposed comprehensive measures in the educational process, which, in our opinion, will be able to provide high-quality training of specialists capable of acting in non-standard situations, making quick decisions, ready for self-improvement, positive communication and a healthy response to challenges society.