Conditions for the development of soft skills among future social educators

The professional training of social educators plays an important role in the formation of qualified specialists who are able to respond to the challenges of modern society and assist in social integration and human development. However, as the practice of the modern labor market shows, focusing only on "solid" subject and technical skills in a rapidly changing world cannot ensure the professional success of future social educators, there is an adequate need to develop soft skills. In this regard, the article presents the conditions for the development of soft skills in the process of training social educators at the university. The analysis of the concept of soft skills is presented, the necessary soft skills for social educators are identified. The paper considers the development of soft skills as a mandatory component of training, ensuring professional success in the future socio-pedagogical activities of students of the educational program 6B01801 – "Training of social educators". The authors analyzed domestic and foreign educational programs, technologies that contribute to the development of students' socio-pedagogical activities, ways to integrate soft skills into educational programs. In the practical part of the article, the results of a questionnaire are presented to identify the views of students of the educational program "Training of social educators" on the phenomenon of soft skills. 35 students of the South Kazakhstan Pedagogical University took part in it. The result of theoretical analysis and empirical research is the justification for the creation of pedagogical conditions for the development of soft skills. Keywords: soft skills, skills, social pedagogue, professional training, development, educational program, higher education institution.