The Be Skills™ Programme focuses on the social and emotional skills – “Be Skills” - that help young people be determined and focused on their goals, curious, resilient and great team players. Employers tell us that these are key skills they want from all employees, and significant research shows that high Be Skill levels lead to increased life and career success.
The “Big Five” Be Skills are:
Tenacity
Being able to work, plan and get things done in the face of obstacles
Teamwork
Understanding and caring about other people and enjoying working in a team
Emotional Resilience
Being able to cope with stress and remain composed under pressure
Curiosity
Being curious about the world and open to new ideas
Sociability
Being engaged, at ease, and able to communicate and act appropriately in social situations
These Be Skills are not fixed, as was once thought. Our brains are plastic and can build new, stronger pathways within them to develop all of our skills muscles, including the Be Skills. So while certain Be Skills come naturally to some young people, others have to work at them. To do this effectively, they need to understand what each skill means and what it looks like in the real world, and develop effective strategies to practice it.
The Be Skills™ Assessment offers NZ educational organisations, for the first time, a rigorous means of understanding their students’ social and emotional skills. Organisations can use this as a baseline to measure the impact of the Be Skills development work they go on to do, explore skills gaps within particular cohorts, and ground powerful development focused conversations with individual students.
21C Skills Lab is delighted to be partnering with RAD Science Solutions , a US-based educational testing and research organisation, to undertake a pilot administration in February 2019 of SELF+e, an assessment designed to measure social and emotional learning (SEL) skills in New Zealand. The pilot will involve up to 5,000 students across around 10 schools and tertiary organisations.
In 2019, 21C Skills Lab intends to roll out the Be Skills™ Programme nationally, offering the Be Skills™ Assessment using SELF+e to all educational organisations working with young people from Y6-13, and adding in resources, tools and professional development opportunities for New Zealand educators wanting to grow their students’ Be Skills.
To find out more, please contact Justine Munro on 021 537 780 or [email protected]
