HOW DO SOFT SKILLS MARK UP FOR SCHOOL DROPOUTS?

Abstract

A lot of attention and various efforts have been devoted to the character development of students at formal schools. Meanwhile, there are also those who dropped out of school for some certain reasons and conditions which, however, does not clog their future success. This is presumed to be in such a way due to intelligence alone is not what it takes to be successful. This study aimed at assessing school dropouts' soft skill ability. A qualitative design was chosen for this study and the case study model was deliberated as a precise method to carry out. There were 40 school dropouts (aged 7-11) in Taman Edukasi Anak Pemulung, Banda Aceh involved as the objects in this study. The Brooking Soft Skill Report Rubric was used as an instrument. This rubric was filled by 5 volunteer teachers, who are considered as the subjects of this study. A semi-structured interview was also carried out to triangulate the data. Later, the data were presented in percentage to see each skill result. Afterward, a three-step analysis was utilized to verify the data. The results unveiled that the highest percentage skills that they have are Social Skills (33%), followed by Self-Management Skills (26%), then Academic Soft Skills (22%), and the least is Approaches to Learning (19%). Besides, it was found that although they have a low percentage in Academic and Learning Soft Skills, they still have good skills in Social and Self-Management. This implies that the school dropouts still have chances to succeed. Despite a belief stating that social skills play huge roles in determining someone's success—as most the world's influencing CEOs to show us, academic and learning skills never weigh less in strengthening someone's values.

Keywords: Social Skills, Self-Management, Academic Soft Skills, Life Success, Character Education