Psychological and pedagogical support for the development of emotional intelligence as the foundation for soft skills in the professional self-determination of adolescents

Abstract

The article describes the results of a study on the issue of professional self-determination in modern society, the process of developing and testing a program of psychological and pedagogical support for professional self-determination of adolescents, aimed at increasing the level of emotional intelligence and the development of soft skills. In order to have a competitive advantage on the labour market, a modern young specialist must constantly develop new competences, such as creativity, critical thinking, forming one’s own opinion and judgments and making decisions based on them, cognitive flexibility, and emotional intelligence. At the same time, rapid development of technology has significantly reduced the amount and quality of direct communication among teenagers. This has had a negative effect on emotional intelligence, in particular, on understanding and responding to other people’s emotions and behaviour. An empirical study on the level of development of emotional intelligence and career choice awareness was conducted in Yekaterinburg at secondary school No. 107. The sample was comprised of 56 respondents aged 16–17 years. A comparative analysis of diagnostic data for the experimental and the control groups before and after the program’s implementation revealed prominent differences in the scales of “awareness” — at the significance level p ≤ 0.01 (2.79), “planning” — at the significance level p ≤ 0.05 (2.14) and “attitude” — at the significance level p ≤ 0.001 (3.68). The outcomes suggest that the sample group’s participation in the program induced certain changes: the students became more aware of career opportunities available in the modern world and learned to correlate the information with their own inclinations and interests, to consider all the factors of the current situation and the prospects; they began to make decisions more deliberately and prudently, to show determination, and to assess risks when choosing their future career.