Preparing for Workplace Excellence:
A Simple Yet Powerful Program Created by Professionals, refined by educators.
The MindSage Durable Skills Program had its roots in internship training. Crafted by seasoned professionals, it serves as the swiftest route to shift students from a 'classroom mindset' to a professional work environment. Through collaborative efforts with educators, the program has been honed to seamlessly bridge the gap between education and the dynamic demands of the workplace.
With seven years of development and over ten thousand students in four states having taken our durable skills lessons, our program is well-developed and continues to be refined. Additionally, students, both nationally and internationally, have completed our Durable Skills certification course to become better equipped to enter and succeed in the workplace. We’re here for you and your students.
WHY IT WORKS
The MindSage program's effectiveness is rooted in practical workplace testing and refinement. The program, originally developed as an intern training initiative based on the developers' own corporate training experiences, is specifically designed for developing non-academic skills. From extensive surveys spanning various companies, organizations, and universities, a fundamental set of 15 durable skills lessons that employers deemed essential, was established. Eventually, the core training expanded to encompass 32 comprehensive lessons.
First Evolution
Recognizing that interns had acquired counterproductive school-based habits that weren't conducive to the professional world and could potentially sabotage their effectiveness on the job, additional lessons were created to highlight these habits and offer strategies for replacing them with valuable durable skills. These lessons facilitate interns' transition effectively from academia to the workplace, ensuring their preparedness for success in their professional roles.
Second Evolution
Our goal was to swiftly move interns from training to live projects. Specific lessons were designed to enhance their competence and ability to contribute in the workplace. These lessons focused on imparting durable skills that promised the most immediate impact and return on investment (ROI) for employers.
Third Evolution
A critical realization emerged: interns often struggled to fully apply soft skill lessons due to self-esteem and self-confidence issues. Consequently, the MindSage program introduced the concept of the three foundational durable skills that should be developed first. These foundational qualities—Self-awareness, Self-appreciation, and Self-acceptance—establish the cornerstone of Self-reliance, upon which all other durable skills can be constructed.
By merging these four focus areas—essential lessons in durable skills as deemed by employers, lessons countering negative school habits, lessons offering the quickest workplace return on investment, and lessons that laid a foundation for the intern or student to develop durable skills—the MindSage program emerges as a straightforward yet potent and efficient durable skills development program suitable for individuals of all ages.
Moving Into 2024
We're actively in contact with AmericaSucceedes.org and are eager to review and integrate their durable skills framework into our program. Additionally, we are partnering with state educational organizations to understand the specific needs of educators and students, aiming to offer tailored professional support for durable skills training.
Partnering with Educators
When we developed MindSage, we knew we needed to collaborate with teachers because if educators couldn't implement the program, it wouldn't serve its purpose. The main concern repeatedly raised by educators was the shortage of time available for introducing programs that did not cover core academic curriculum. The format of MindSage lessons that we chose to implement not only tackles this concern among educators but is also based on current research and proven success.
In our two-year pilot programs at high schools and middle schools, we adopted a three 10-15 minute micro-lessons each week approach. Typically these micro-lessons would occur on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. A minimum of lessons on Mondays and Fridays was required for students to benefit.
Recognizing that each school, teacher, class, and student may have different time allotments and learning paces, we designed the lessons to be flexible and adaptable for both asynchronous and synchronous learning, whether in-person or remote.
The final key component of the MindSage method is the inclusion of a metacognitive goal or assignment for each week. This assignment encourages students to engage in self-examination throughout the week, enabling them to gain insights about themselves in relation to the material and topic under discussion.
EASY IMPLEMENTATION
• Cover one lesson per week.
• Each lesson is divided into three sections. Ideally, these sections should be covered on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The lessons are designed to mimic the way young adults are accustomed to learning and consuming content.
• You can use each day's lesson as your lesson plan, discussing the material with your class. Alternatively, you can cover the introduction and primer questions in class and ask students to review the remaining content on their own.
• On Fridays, you can review the content and encourage students to share what they've learned about themselves during the week. This effective group metacognitive activity allows students to learn from each other.
• Most segments or sections take about 10-15 minutes to review. If not all of the lesson is covered in class, the students can review the remaining content outside of class.
Note: The above recommendations are our best suggestions based on our pilot testing. Use the content as you see fit, according to your schedule. Some schools choose to cover all three lessons in a single one-hour period on one day. Others choose to teach lessons on different days. Our primary goal is that students are exposed to this content.
Employers can’t be fooled.
Listing durable/soft skills on your resume isn't enough; you must actually possess them.
Durable skills training can't be approached like any other academic subject. Developing and effectively demonstrating durable skills requires more than just memorizing definitions or citing examples. At MindSage, we excel at assisting people in cultivating non-cognitive traits, qualities, mindsets, and habits.
“The most profound changes a person can make, are those they choose to make themselves.”
Contact us if you have questions about customizing and implementing a durable skills program in your class, school or district, or you’d like professional durable skills PD for your staff. All consultations are free.