FORMATION OF SOFT SKILLS OF FUTURE SOCIAL WORKERS AS A CONDITION FOR THEIR IMPLEMENTATION OF INNOVATIVE ACTIVITIES

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to theoretically substantiate the influence of future social workers’ soft skills on the development of their ability to effectively implement innovations in their further professional activities. A review of the definitions given to the concept of soft skills by Ukrainian and foreign scientists has been carried out.In the article, the soft skills of future social workers are understood as a set of socio-psychological knowledge and skills, personal characteristics of higher education graduates necessary for the successful completion of tasks, interaction with other people and further effective implementation of professional activities in the social sphere. It has been determined that the need for formation of a social worker’s ability to innovate is due to the challenges of the time, the emergence of social problems that cannot be solved by traditional methods. The main soft skills necessary for finding new ways to solve the current problems of various categories of the population in conditions of uncertainty are creativity, critical thinking, adaptability, leadership potential in combination with the ability to work in a team. The problem of developing the ability of future social workers to carry out innovative activities can be solved by creating a number of pedagogical conditions for the formation of soft skills in a higher education institution: involving students in socially useful activities, activating interpersonal interaction of the team in educational and extracurricular activities, practice-oriented educational process, involving students in informal education. This creates various options for the development of soft skills in the educational process of a higher education institution to ensure that graduates are successful not only in implementing innovations in professional activities, but also in everyday communication with other people.