Preventing soft skill decay among early-career women in STEM during COVID-19: Evidence from a longitudinal intervention

Melin, Julia L.; Correll, Shelley J.

doi:10.1073/pnas.2123105119

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…This increases innovation, inventiveness and the growing proportion of employers rather than workers and a stable national economic growth and stability. Our society is experiencing application challenges in chemistry, in which employment demand for graduates to have soft skills which allow them to contribute towards innovation and enterprise (Melin & Correll, 2022). Our institutions of learning are not focusing to produce graduates who are equipped in dealing with future improvements and entrepreneurial attributes such as failure (Chell 2013).…”

Section: Entrepreneurial Mindsetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entrepreneurship education to stimulate entrepreneurial mindset in chemistry students

Dyantyi,

Faleni

2023

IJRBS

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Chemistry is a field of study that teaches students critical skills in producing day-to-day products ranging from detergents, cosmetics, energy components and supplies for treating water. The majority of chemistry students seek formal employment after completing their studies, which helps to explain the increased incidence of unemployed South African graduates. This occurrence is more apparent in the Eastern Cape where there are very few chemistry industries with such employment opportunities. However, having an entrepreneurial mindset can lead to students venturing into business during or after their studies. Student businesses not only benefit the student but the community with accessible personalized solutions to their problems, institutions with reputation, creating a circular economy and possibly employment of others. Hence, this study aims to evaluate whether the offered entrepreneurship education to chemistry students stimulates an entrepreneurial mindset. The paper employed the qualitative narrative literature review methodology and the connectivism learning theory to achieve the set aim. Explored themes in realizing the aim are graduate attributes, science-based entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial mindset. The key findings are that science-based entrepreneurship education lacks the embedment of fundamental chemistry that creates familiarity with the concept and subsequent relatability with the course content. The connectivism learning theory supports the link between familiarity and new learning opportunities whereby, in this case, an entrepreneurial mindset can be stimulated. The study proposes that entrepreneurship education for chemistry students must include chemistry-related case studies and a participatory practical approach as a co-curricula. The co-curricula aspect will involve opportunities to start a real business on campus during the semester in which the course is offered.

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Section: Entrepreneurial Mindsetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entrepreneurship education to stimulate entrepreneurial mindset in chemistry students

Dyantyi,

Faleni

2023

IJRBS

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“…In contrast, virtual teams have a more constrained interaction, bounded by the presence of a screen in front of each team component. Moreover, Melin and Correll ( 2022 ) find positive effects (according to participants’ self-assessment of their social soft skills) of an online intervention program (consisting of virtual peer groups and online career coaching) aimed at developing social soft skills among early-career women in a North-American firm during the pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The emergence of social soft skill needs in the post COVID-19 era

2023

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Social soft skills are crucial for workers to perform their tasks, yet it is hard to train people on them and to readapt their skill set when needed. In the present work, we analyze the possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on social soft skills in the context of Italian occupations related to 88 economic sectors and 14 age groups. We leverage detailed information coming from ICP (i.e. the Italian equivalent of O*Net), provided by the Italian National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policy, from the microdata for research on the continuous detection of labor force, provided by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), and from ISTAT data on the Italian population. Based on these data, we simulate the impact of COVID-19 on workplace characteristics and working styles that were more severely affected by the lockdown measures and the sanitary dispositions during the pandemic (e.g. physical proximity, face-to-face discussions, working remotely). We then apply matrix completion—a machine-learning technique often used in the context of recommender systems—to predict the average variation in the social soft skills importance levels required for each occupation when working conditions change, as some changes might be persistent in the near future. Professions, sectors, and age groups showing negative average variations are exposed to a deficit in their social soft-skills endowment, which might ultimately lead to lower productivity.

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Preventing soft skill decay among early-career women in STEM during COVID-19: Evidence from a longitudinal intervention

Melin

Correll

2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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As the workforce shifts to being predominantly hybrid and remote, how can companies help employees—particularly early-career women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields—develop greater confidence in their soft skills, shown to improve organizational retention? We evaluate the effects of an online longitudinal intervention to develop soft skills among early-career women employees at a North American biotechnology company during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Controlling for baseline levels collected immediately prior to nationwide lockdowns, we find that a 6-month online intervention increased early-career women’s assessments of their soft skills at work by an average of 9% ( P < 0.001), compared with a decrease of about 3.5% for a matched control group ( P < 0.05), resulting in an average treatment effect of nearly 13% on the treated group. Furthermore, we find evidence that the intervention led to an increase in manager-assessed performance for early-career women relative to employees not in the intervention, and that overall, increased self-assessments of soft skill competencies were associated with greater odds of retention. Results show how employee soft skill development was affected by the pandemic and provide insights for a feasible and cost-effective method to train and engage a hybrid or fully remote workforce.

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Preventing soft skill decay among early-career women in STEM during COVID-19: Evidence from a longitudinal intervention

Cited by 4 publications

References 34 publications

Entrepreneurship education to stimulate entrepreneurial mindset in chemistry students

Entrepreneurship education to stimulate entrepreneurial mindset in chemistry students

The emergence of social soft skill needs in the post COVID-19 era

Preventing soft skill decay among early-career women in STEM during COVID-19: Evidence from a longitudinal intervention

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