Development of socio-emotional skills amongst VET school teachers: pilot project supporting 21st century skills

The continual development of profiles and skills required by companies and sudden changes imposed by the labour market have challenged the adaptability of various VET actors. This means the need to develop key future-oriented skills is becoming a priority (OECD, 2018) – these are transversal skills which are easily transferable to other areas and contexts, such as resilience, adaptability, stress management, collaboration, autonomy and responsibility. They are fundamental skills to ensure flexibility, adaptability and the ability to reorientate and position yourself pro-actively rather than  passively to change. The International Labour Organization has identified socio-emotional skills, including emotional intelligence, amongst the four key skills required to flourish in work and life in the 21st century (ILO, 2021).

The ability to recognise and manage emotions and establish functional and positive relationships with pupils and colleagues is a key resource that not only supports the efficiency of the teaching and learning process, but also helps to maintain the wellbeing and resilience of teachers. Strong socio-emotional skills also enable teachers to promote a positive school experience with the learners they come into contact with. Despite the success of socio-emotional learning programmes, less demand seems to have been placed on the VET sector in this respect, particularly in Switzerland (Fiori, 2023). This project aims to initiate systematic and operational reflection on how socio-emotional skills can be promoted amongst VET school teachers, starting from the context of our university.

Integrating transversal skills into VET training in Switzerland has major social benefits. By training a workforce equipped with strong versatile skills, the education system helps to cut unemployment and foster economic growth. In this respect, it is important to note that emotional skills complement technical VET skills and that the competitive advantage of the workforce to which we refer is based on the coexistence of technical or hard skills and transversal or soft skills.