Soft skills, as opposed to hard skills like technical skills,
focuses on those elements of training that require changes
in behavior and thinking. They are the traits and abilities
of attitude and behavior, rather than of knowledge or technical
aptitude. Soft skills are also being called as the 21st
century skills and are the key to enterprise, entrepreneurship,
and leadership, as well as underlying many other social
issues. Even so, the education sector and the government
policies continue to treat soft skills as desirable rather
than essential. Against increasing concerns of talent scarcity,
many sectors worryingly report inadequate levels of required
talent. Today, many employers are facing the challenge of
hiring employees who are either new to the workforce or
making the difficult transition to meet their demands. This
is mainly due to the lack of an effective mechanism to manage.
Soft skills have long been ignored badly and dealt poorly
by most educational courses and training institutions.
Penelope Tobin, Founder and Creative Director, Barrier
Breakers defines, "Soft skills engender automatic chains
of emotional and physiological responses which have an immensely
real impact within the mind, body, and society at large."
They are inherent human capabilities and competencies that
exist within everyone to some level. They can be used without
requiring special knowledge, aptitude, talent or intelligence.
If a particular skill is not used by a person, it is not
because it does not exist, but because it is blocked by
barriers that need to be recognized and removed. Once those
barriers are recognized and broken down, one can excavate
into a far richer vein of ability and extract more of our
capacity thus bringing benefits for ourselves, employers,
and society. Soft skills are now essential factors for social
and economic development. Soft skills traits that most employers
look for when they recruit employees include effective communication,
leadership, teamwork research skills and analytical ability.
Strengthening one's soft skills is very important and it
takes on a completely different approach from that of learning
hard skills. Reading books, articles and attending conferences/networking
will definitely help one to move in the right direction.
Another source to get started is by mastering material in
workshops offered by the career counseling centers. Apart,
from this practice makes a man perfect. Like any other thing
in life, a little bit of practice may help a person go a
long way.
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