A journey through the world of soft skills and public speaking

​The first week of November in Bologna started with two courses about Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence and Effective Communication and Public Speaking.

​“How can we learn to be assertive and built awareness in our communication style?”
“How can we be effective public speaker?”
“How can we solve conflicts in our classes?”

 ​These and many others were the questions that leaded teachers from all over the Europe (Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, England and Croatia) into a journey through the world of soft skills and public speaking.
After some networking and cultural activities in which the participants started to get to know each other, they discussed together about how emotional intelligence and empathy can play a crucial role to better connect with their students and understand more about their emotions. At the same time, they focused on what our body language can say about us and about our students. It was an intense and rewarding journey, the one they took to get out of their comfort zone and try to put everything into perspective.
Public speaking has been in the spotlight from the beginning: you cannot not communicate. Our body speaks for us and even if we don't realize it, on a subconscious level we always receive signals from the body language of others. Through some activities, the participants realized how much the non-verbal and paraverbal communication is important. We all receive information and learn through our senses.

​Then, they focused more on empathy: the importance of looking at things as if they were in other people's shoes, not judging, being able to understand other people's feelings and communicating not just by talking but by active listening.
Communication was also one of the key points addressed during the course: assertive, passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive were the communication style they investigated by analyzing some examples from each style and trying to figure out how they can recognize them. Are we really aware of the way we communicate? How is it difficult to say no and to communicate in an assertive way?

Our participants practicing creativity and collaboration skills

​Finally, they focused on what "conflict" means. How many times have we labelled this word as something negative to be avoided? How often do we avoid conflict for fear of it?​While the participants of the course on public speaking explored some of the key concepts on how to prepare a public speech, the importance of facial expressions, gesturing, balancing the energy and some tricks to be able to interact better with the space and engage the audience, the soft skills participants focused on the different leadership styles (from Lewin's to Goleman's model) and the importance of teamwork. Through many practical activities, together they discovered that each leader uses a different style depending on the situation they are dealing with. They also saw with their own eyes how essential it is to be a team, to be able to count on others and to be able to ask for help when needed. ​​Finally, they focused on what "conflict" means. How many times have we labelled this word as something negative to be avoided? How often do we avoid conflict for fear of it?

  By sharing their own experiences, they explored some conflict situations in order to look at them as learning opportunities that can bring something good in their life. By facing conflict we can grow and be more aware of ourselves, our emotions, our relationships with others.
Of course everything was even better thanks to the cultural activities organized around Bologna, the typical Italian cuisine and the crucial interaction with all the other teachers! ​​“A training with practical experiences that you can use at school and all the other sectors of education as well”
We already know they will bring everything they learned into their cultural background and especially into their classes. It was a pleasure to spend this week together, we hope to see you soon!
More info on these courses at: https://www.erasmustrainingcourses.com/soft-skills-for-education-staff.html and https://www.erasmustrainingcourses.com/public-speaking-and-presentation-skills-for-teachers.html

Want to hear the experience from the point of view of one of our participants? No problem! Have a look at the article Natalija wrote about her week in Bologna :)