An Overview Of Acquiring Soft Skills Through Training

Soft skills are self-developed, interactive, communication, human, and transferable talents, whereas hard skills are academic skills, experience, and level of expertise. According to research, hard skills account for only 15% of a person's performance, soft skills account for the remaining 85%  (Wats and Wats, 2009). Academic skills and experience are no longer sufficient for corporate entry and advancement. Employers like to hire and promote self-starters who are resourceful, ethical, and have strong communication and soft skills. Due to a scarcity of soft skills among candidates, companies have a poor hiring rate. Despite the fact that soft skills are extremely important, many business schools are hesitant to include soft skills training in management courses. Soft skills have become an important and essential factor for corporate jobs, regardless of the industry.

The necessity for soft skills in the workplace made job acquisition and retention more difficult. All applicants who want to gain an advantage over their competitors should work on sharpening their soft skills so that they can emerge victorious, regardless of the challenges they face during the recruiting process or during their employment. Employers regard shortages of soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, customer orientation and responsiveness, to be significantly more important than shortages of hard or technical abilities. Poor soft skills (such as communication skills ) generate a negative impression on employers throughout the recruitment process and can disqualify a graduate with high technical capabilities from being employed.

Soft skills training programs attempt to increase a range of talents, such as assertiveness, negotiation skills, communication skills, and the capacity to establish and sustain interpersonal relationships, regardless of the target population or the institution where it is delivered.

 


                                                                     Figure 01

Soft talents are abilities that are built into a person's DNA. At some level, each person possesses these abilities. However, if these skills are not used, or if the person who uses them ignores them, that person will never be able to exploit their innate abilities. Any soft skills enhancement program's goal is to remove these roadblocks or limitations to an individual's ability to use his or her skills. (John, 2010).Using efficient training methods employees may put what they learned in class into practice in the real world. The degree of practice and experience is substantially boosted by their own desire to develop and change, the environment of their workplace, and the support of their supervisors, not just after the training, but also during the training (Ibrahim, Boerhannoeddin and Bakare, 2017).

 

 

                                                                                Figure 02

Soft skills training is less likely to transfer to employment than hard skills training, according to the literature. As a result, soft  skills training should be included in the early years of schooling as a part of the knowledge and abilities required to prepare students for employment. From a young age, educational institutions should draw on previous successes in fostering soft skills in youngsters with faster learning abilities(AbuJbara and Worley, 2018). Students who are exposed to soft skills training on a regular basis will have an advantage over their peers in terms of employment as well as general personality development (Ibrahim, Boerhannoeddin and Bakare, 2017). Soft skill training will make an individual aware of his hidden abilities and refine them for the individual's overall development and success. Soft skills training can benefit anyone, regardless of their inherited abilities (John, 2010). 


References

 

AbuJbara, N. and Worley, J., 2018. Leading toward new horizons with soft skills. On the Horizon, 26(3), pp.247-259.

Ibrahim, R., Boerhannoeddin, A. and Bakare, K., 2017. The effect of soft skills and training methodology on employee performance. European Journal of Training and Development, 41(4), pp.388-406.

John, J., 2010. Study on the Nature of Impact of Soft Skills Training Programme on the Soft Skills Development of Management Students. [online] Papers.ssrn.com. Available at:          <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1591331> [Accessed 1   April 2022].

Wats, R. and Wats, M., 2009. Developing Soft Skills in Students. The International Journal of Learning: Annual Review, 15(12), pp.1-10.




Comments

  1. P.Janaka Chaminda PereraApril 12, 2022 at 9:09 PM

    As Explained by (Colman, 2021) more personality-centered based on soft skills, technical skills or professional experience. It includes personal skills, social skills, interpersonal skills and interchangeable skills. Essentially, gentle abilities are the human’s abilities, character abilities, and communique competencies your team of workers wishes for the long-time period fulfillment of your organization. After all, nearly each activity calls for personnel to interact with others, both inner and outdoor of your organization, making those abilities something now no longer to be overlooked (Mcgarry, 2020).

    According to the (Hansen, 2018)you recognize your new rent has the tough technical abilities they want to do their process. What stays a thriller is the way to integrate the realistic expertise they have already got with the gentle abilities they'll be lacking, in particular if this process is their first or they are transitioning into a brand new role. As virtual natives mainly acquainted with the web international input the workforce, gentle abilities schooling is greater vital than ever. Here's how you may broaden gentle abilities within side the place of work always and effectively.
    Teaching soft skills is traditionally challenging. Examples include soft skills, distinguished from rigid skills of technical knowledge and skills
    • Communication
    • Leadership
    • Critical thanking
    • Listening
    • Teamwork
    • Punctuality

    Reference
    Colman, H., 2021. www.ispringsolutions.com. [Online]
    Available at: https://www.ispringsolutions.com/blog/soft-skills-training
    [Accessed 13 04 2022].
    Hansen, M., 2018. https://elearningindustry.com/. [Online]
    Available at: https://elearningindustry.com/soft-skills-in-the-workplace-develop-train
    [Accessed 13 04 2022].
    Mcgarry, O., 2020. www.learnupon.com. [Online]
    Available at: https://www.learnupon.com/blog/soft-skills-training/
    [Accessed 13 04 2022].

    ReplyDelete
  2. maduwanthisilva.blogspot.comApril 28, 2022 at 8:28 AM

    Although soft skills are essential developing soft skills is not a quick process. Until anyone confident about his soft skills he has to reflect and practice it. There are 3 major levels of measuring soft skills can be identified. They are 'Emerging level' where skills are starting to develop, 'Consolidating level' where practicing and developing ,but not quite confident, 'Established level' where skills are developed and have confident about thyself .(UMJ tool kit, ND)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Geethal PereraMay 1, 2022 at 4:16 AM

    Soft skill training is an important part of the modern business world. Developing soft skills is a process because employees must first engage in a little self-reflection before they know what soft skills training they need. This can be difficult, but it can also be rewarding. Before developing soft skills, you might develop some areas to sustain soft skill development in your company.
    1. Managers & employees should develop a learning mindset
    2. Encourage self-reflection
    3. Expand job knowledge and understanding
    4. Leverage powerful LMS(Learning Management) software
    5. Provide opportunities for practice
    6. Continuous Offer feedback
    (talentlms,2020)

    ReplyDelete
  4. sampathJMay 3, 2022 at 11:15 PM

    For many organizations, hard skills are top of the list when hiring. That is, they’ll look for skills that are specific to the job itself, and the training or experience needed to perform the job well.
    Essentially, soft skills are the people skills, personality skills, and communication abilities your workforce needs for the long-term success of your organization. After all, almost every job requires employees to engage with others, either inside or outside of your organization, making these skills something not to be overlooked. While the importance of relevant education, training, and job experience can’t be understated, you also need to consider less tangible abilities, like soft skills. After all, it’s not just about having the most talented, qualified employees. It’s about them being able to work together as a team, for the benefit of their own, and the organization’s, success.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Chathura PereraMay 5, 2022 at 10:10 AM

    Soft skills training focuses on developing skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, emotional intelligence, a positive attitude, and taking the initiative (Markovic, 2021). Outbound Training can be taken as a method of off the job training which generally revolves around outbound activities designed to improve leadership, communication skills, performance, planning, change management, delegation, teamwork, and motivation (Outlife, 2022).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ishari WeerasingheMay 6, 2022 at 7:51 PM

    The academic curriculum is indeed a vehicle through which other significant features are delivered. These features are largely constant regardless of the subject studied. The prospect of employment is also changing rapidly. Traditional career paths have disappeared, entire industries have relocated to other areas of the world, and new technologies have made established practice and experience irrelevant (Wilson et al., 2011). And the naming of the factor loading matrix in this study is relatively straightforward since the items clustered reflect closely the seven soft skills. The seven-factor dimensions are thus communication skills, critical thinking and problem- solving skills, team-working skills, lifelong learning and information A.J. Wilson et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 65 ( 2012 ) 781 – 786 785 management skills, entrepreneurship skills, moral and professional ethics and leadership skills. Based on the analyses, all seven factors explain 69.707 per cent of the total variance of the acquisition of soft skills by training.

    ReplyDelete

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