The SINAPSI Project - Simulazioni INterattive per l’APprendimento di Skill Individuali - deploy and test an innovative online tool and methodology for the teaching of "soft skills" such as negotiation, entrepreneurship, creativity, motivation, teamworking, etc. To achieve this goal, the project will bring together a 3D simulation platform, developed in an earlier Leonardo project (SISINE) by the ISTC-CNR and a classroom-based methodology for the teaching of soft skills, already field tested by one of the partners, Entropy, an Italian training company. The tools and methodology provided will be suitable for use in small and large organizations in both the public and the private sector.

SINAPSI will use the specific advantages of the platform developed in SISINE and the general advantages of e-learning to surpass the usual difficulty diffused in soft skill training.

Training soft skill in Europe

Social, politic and economic changes of the lasts years in Europe like frontier’s despondency, introduction of the only money and globalization had brought to important cultural transformations that influenced also the work systems and practices. The "human factor" became to be view as an important variable on the effectiveness and efficiency of public and private organizations. The modern companies need to focus on training systems that consider both technical and personal improvement.

The training of soft skills is now perceived by European organizations as a way of improving overall effectiveness and efficiency as well as the performance of individual worker. Today, however, effective training in soft skills is still relatively rare. There are many reasons. Some of the most important are the limitations and high cost of traditional teaching methods, which mainly target small groups of managers. Another factor is the inability of small companies to make the required investment. Cultural and economic factors also play a role: even today, managers in some European countries are less aware than others of the advantages to be gained from effective training in soft skills.