The value of social skills will determine success.

“In addition to the knowledge aspect, it is equally important to ensure that … people obtain social and other necessary skills and develop emotional intelligence”. The “Opinion” on “Gender Equality” by Milena Angelova was adopted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) recently. Soft skills as enabler for equality and sustainable success have been recognized within the EU.

Additionally, the digital tools of UP’N’CHANGE as means to develop essential skills in the area of personal, social and creative competences were recognized, which honours our work (www.upnchange.com).

Having a profound skillset for coping even under challenging circumstances is getting more and more important for anyone in the currently complex conditions for managing oneself and organizations. Staying calm & resilient on the personal side enables the ability for collaboration and working together, which then results in the necessary creativity for innovation and sustainable success.

Thanks to Milena Angelova (Secretary-General of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), EESC Employers’ Group Vice-President, Executive Vice-President of SGI Europe) and her team for all the precious work.

The complete Opinion on “Gender Equality” can be downloaded here in all EU languages.

And here the most interesting abstracts:

[….] 3.7. […..] Additionally, the importance of emotional skills (i.e. personal and social) alongside functional competences is essential as this forms the basis for enabling resilience, mental strength, conflict management, collaboration and factual communication. The focus of the future definitely needs to be on rational and emotional intelligence. LLGEC needs to include emotional education, as the World Economic Forum 2021 states that the top seven human skills include creativity, emotional intelligence and complex problem solving.

The digital, female-founded start-up UP’N’CHANGE (www.upnchange.com) has found ways to translate deep expertise in psychology and coaching into simple digital tools to help people develop personal, social and creative skills. The vision of UP’N’CHANGE is to unleash the potential of employees and teams with digital tools to enable organisations to achieve sustainable success. Because the right skillset means effective collaboration. Effective collaboration means innovation. And innovation means growth for everyone.)

[…..] 3.13. Besides STEM competences, it is also important to encourage girls to study economics and management subjects, so as to prepare them for leadership positions. Moreover, it is important to guide them to learn entrepreneurial and risk management skills and to strengthen their self-confidence to avoid and tackle the impostor syndrome. Looking at the stress typology of women, there seems to be a tendency towards more introvert, as opposed to extrovert, personalities in stress situations. This results in women not seeking out exposed positions due to fear of negative comments from others, which are taken personally, not feeling qualified if they do not (over)fulfill all specifications in a job description, and not wanting to be a “quota woman”. This is often related back to (unconscious) beliefs and fears. While the enhancement of skills and competences require practical measures at the level of teaching and learning methods and of career guidance, these objectives should also be connected to the general awareness-raising programme on LLGEC.