Cultivating soft skills in academy: Innovative approaches in education

Resumen

In an increasingly dynamic labor market, soft skills help individuals adapt to new roles, technologies, and work environments. It is crucial for pre-service teachers to strengthen competencies that enable them to interact more effectively and resolve conflicts, not only on a personal level but also within the educational community. This study aims to identify the soft skills perceived by pre-service teachers in the National and Foreign Languages Pedagogy program at ULEAM, as well as to analyze the benefits of shifting the educational focus towards the development and application of soft skills. The research follows a Socio-Critical paradigm and uses a mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative research. The sample includes 148 students, both male and female, enrolled from the first to the ninth semester, as well as 6 school administrators and 5 high school teachers from private, public, and religious institutions. The instruments used were a soft skills questionnaire and in-depth interviews. The findings show that administrators and high school teachers find the integration of soft skills into the curriculum challenging, particularly when applying active methodologies with the use of technology. Pre-service teachers perceive intercultural competence, adaptability, and decision-making as the most developed skills. The study concludes that teachers recognize their essential role in developing soft skills but require more institutional support, resources, and practical training to enhance their integration.