Why are there only benefits to cultivating kids' soft skills?

Soft skills, those human aptitudes such as communication, problem-solving and empathy, are fundamental qualities to be developed from childhood onwards, in order to foster individual fulfillment and the ability to adapt and succeed in a constantly changing world."

Psychosocial skills: a health issue.

Back in the 1980s, the World Health Organization identified the development of psychosocial competencies (CPS or Soft Skills) as one of the five strategic lines of action for health promotion.

Soft skills are "a person's ability to cope effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. This enables them to maintain a state of psychological well-being and to behave appropriately and positively in interactions with others, whatever their culture or environment ".

Today, all the major international organizations support this approach to developing soft skills: Unesco, Unicef, WHO, OECD and others.

And with good reason: where many health prevention campaigns have failed, SPC development programs have achieved very positive results. It was found that communication interventions on risk behaviors were far less effective than more generic programs aimed at developing soft skills such as self-confidence, self-control and stress regulation.

Here are a few examples of the benefits of developing soft skills, as demonstrated by studies (source: santé publique France 2022 report) 

In the longer term, soft skills contribute to lifelong well-being. 

According to research studies :

So developing children's soft skills from an early age means they can approach life better equipped and more serene to deal with all the stages of life as a child, teenager and adult.