Soft skills — or, in a translation to English, “socioemotional skills” — have become an important factor for those trying to enter the job market.
In some cases, when hiring, companies prioritize these elements over the candidate’s technical competence.
But what about young people from low-income backgrounds, living in peripheral regions, with limited access to education and little exposure to training in skills like “problem-solving,” “emotional resilience,” “adaptability,” and “effective communication”?
In recent days, BBC News Brazil spoke with training experts and young people from the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Ceará to understand how they are overcoming some of these social barriers that hinder entry into the job market.
In total, 2.2 million people in this group are unemployed — 6.9% of the Brazilian population is jobless.
“For me, the key was learning how to communicate better, how not to get nervous in an interview, and how to use my hands to convey more confidence when talking about my ideas,” explains 20-year-old university student Victor Rodrigheri, raised in Caçapava, in the countryside of São Paulo, and now living in Jardim Bonfiglioli, on the outskirts of São Paulo’s West Zone.
Rodrigheri attended public elementary school. When he finished high school — he had a scholarship at a private school — he needed a job to support himself and continue his studies.
But one barrier held him back when competing for job opportunities:
“I was very shy and had a lot of trouble expressing myself. So, doing a job interview or speaking in public was very difficult. And that’s not something you learn in school,” he says.
To try to solve the problem, the young man enrolled in a professional training program by the Wadhwani Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by Indian-American billionaire Romesh Wadhwani.
After the course, Rodrigheri passed his first job interview at a factory. And earlier this year, he entered the History program at the University of São Paulo (USP).
“Today, I see that these skills even help me at university, like when I talk to a professor or present a project,” says Rodrigheri, who aims to pursue an academic career and become a professor.
Operating in Brazil since 2020, the Wadhwani Foundation partners with local schools and educational institutions to offer soft skills training courses to young people from peripheral areas of cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
“Soft skills are communication, problem-solving, teamwork, critical thinking, and an entrepreneurial mindset,” summarizes Thiago Françoso, the foundation’s vice president in Brazil.
“What we hear from employers is that, many times, the young person from the periphery arrives well-prepared, with technical courses and other qualifications, but struggles with basic tasks, like writing an email or expressing themselves in a meeting.”
A Wadhwani Foundation survey of more than 200 companies from various countries revealed that soft skills have a relative importance of 45% during hiring, compared to 55% for technical skills.
In Brazil, “communication” was identified by 84% of employers surveyed as an essential skill for job candidates — 44% also mentioned “resilience”; 40% cited “teamwork”; 32% highlighted “customer service” quality; and 24% referred to “leadership” and “responsibility.”
“In our courses, we teach from the basics, such as writing an email and the tone of voice in the workplace, to managing emotions like stress in a competitive environment,” Françoso explains.
BBC News Brazil also spoke to two other young women from peripheral areas about their experiences learning soft skills.
Ana Lívia Marques, a 20-year-old student from Caçapava, believes that learning to communicate better with the public was crucial for securing her internship at the reception desk of a medical clinic in the city.
“I try to show the client that I am the link between them and the company and that I’m willing to understand their needs and find the best way to resolve them,” says Ana Lívia, who always studied in public schools and also participated in a Wadhwani Foundation training program.
A trained administrative technician, Ana Lívia intends to continue working in this field for a while. However, she dreams of working with health and technology in sports.
“I think about getting a degree in biotechnology to work with volleyball, which I played when I was younger and is my favorite sport. Volleyball was very important in my life because it’s a team sport where everyone is essential,” she says.
For Ana Clara Mendes, 20, from the Deodoro neighborhood, in the northern outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, organizing her ideas and putting them into action are skills she’s developing in a training course by the Coletivo Aprendiz.
The program, which offers socioemotional skills training to young people from peripheral areas of Rio de Janeiro, Vitória, and São Paulo, is one of the educational arms of the NGO Integrated Center for Studies and Sustainable Development Programs (Cieds).
“I see myself as a creative person, but I overthink and sometimes can’t bring ideas to life. My teacher always tells me: ‘Ana, this idea is great, but how can you be more dynamic to make everything work?'” Mendes, who recently secured a job as a young apprentice at a sanitation company, shares.
She says that the proximity between her home and work (about 30 minutes by bus) was one of the factors that facilitated her hiring.
“Often, when you live in a peripheral neighborhood, companies don’t hire you because they’ll have higher transportation costs. And if you live two hours away from work, you have to wake up four hours earlier to get ready. Then there’s the delayed bus, traffic… You might arrive late, and still have a seven-hour workday ahead… Plus two more hours on the bus going back home. It’s a very tough routine.”
Ana Clara was a judo athlete until she was 18, when she suffered a knee injury and had to stop competing. “I always thought I’d be a professional athlete. But suddenly, I got hit with this setback. So I had to think: ‘Now what? What do I do with my life?'”
Even away from judo, she still plans to work with sports. “I started as a young apprentice to pay for my studies in physical education. I want to work with high-performance athletes. I want to get a master’s, a Ph.D. That’s my dream, and I’ll achieve it,” she says.
But how much do socioemotional skills really make a difference in a student’s journey?
Sobral, a city in Ceará, one of the Brazilian municipalities with the highest score on the Basic Education Development Index (Ideb), decided to incorporate soft skills into the curriculum for its 35,000 elementary school students.
With assistance from the Ayrton Senna Institute, which conducted academic research and helped design the project, the city created a new career path in municipal education: that of a psychologist.
In 2017, during a period of violence in peripheral neighborhoods, each of the 90 schools received a professional — they were hired through a public contest.
“Even with excellent indicators, we realized that our students lacked a more civic education,” explains Herbert Lima, Sobral’s Secretary of Education.
The psychologists began assisting teachers during lessons. “We work with a dual focus. The teacher develops lesson content, like reading or math, alongside socioemotional skills, such as tolerance, empathy, and respect,” says Lima.
According to the Secretary, the project led to improved test scores in assessments like Ideb and also enhanced the relationship between students and teachers.
One of these psychologists is Bruna Pereira Farias, who started working at a Sobral school in 2021.
“We had the best education indicators in Brazil, but we were losing our youth to violence. So one of our challenges is to work with students in different situations, not just at school, but also in their communities, on cultural and social issues. They need to learn how to coexist. We often hold conversation circles,” says the psychologist.
“The student is not just a result. They need to be emotionally well to develop in other areas. And the school needs to be welcoming, with people available to listen to the student and help them develop a life project,” says Bruna.
She cites an example of using soft skills in class. “In a lesson on river maps, we discussed both the geographic aspect and the social situation of riverside communities, the region’s cultural context, and the importance of preserving the environment. The goal is for the student to understand the social issues involved, fostering empathy and citizenship.”
Self-esteem and belonging
But is the peripheral youth less prepared for jobs than their competitors?
Economist Vandre Brilhante, president of Cieds, believes the opposite is true.
“Our experience shows that, comparatively, young people from the periphery tend to stand out more in companies when given opportunities.”
He cites a few reasons:
“Peripheral youth have much greater conflict-resolution skills than middle-class youth. They’ve been doing this since childhood in their communities, having to make decisions on their own. They weren’t raised in a gated community with parents always there to rescue them. They have this street smarts, knowing how to handle challenges,” he says.
“Another factor is determination. Peripheral youth tend to hold on to opportunities more tightly because, often, it’s the only one in their life. A young person from Rio’s affluent South Zone, from the middle class, knows that if they leave the company, they won’t have much difficulty finding another job because they’ve always had many opportunities,” he explains.
According to Brilhante, one obstacle for peripheral youth is self-esteem. “Those from the periphery have difficulty recognizing their potential and fear entering spaces in wealthier regions because they don’t see themselves as belonging there. In our courses, we always try to encourage them to think: ‘I belong in this place, and this place belongs to me.'”
Source: BBC News
