Soft Skill
NAWA Journal of Language and Communication, June 2008
The Importance of Soft Skills: Education beyond academic knowledge
Bernd Schulz Polytechnic of Namibia Abstract
This paper makes a survey of the importance of soft skills in students’ lives both at college and after college. It discusses how soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job the student is trained to do. The paper exhorts educators to take special responsibility regarding soft skills, because during students’ university time, educators have major influence on the development of their students’ soft skills. Embedding the training of soft skills into hard skills courses is a very effective and efficient method of achieving both an attractive way of teaching a particular content and an enhancement of soft skills. Soft skills fulfil an important role in shaping an individual’s personality. It is of high importance for every student to acquire adequate skills beyond academic or technical knowledge.
Introduction
For decades employers as well as educators frequently complain about a lack in soft skills among graduates from tertiary education institutions. Predominantly missed are communication skills, but additional knowledge in business or project management is also ranking highly on the list of missing skills desirable for graduates entering the business world. This problem is in no way restricted to developing nations like Namibia; it is also well known to industrial countries around the world. A recent outcry in this regard came from the British Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), which recently reported that “Employers say many graduates lack ‘soft skills’, such as team working” and “They go on to explain that candidates are normally academically proficient but lacking in soft skills such as communication as well as verbal and numerical reasoning.” (AGR, 2007) Already more than 40 years ago the German Engineering Association (VDI) recommended that 20% of
The Importance of Soft Skills: Education beyond academic knowledge
Bernd Schulz Polytechnic of Namibia Abstract
This paper makes a survey of the importance of soft skills in students’ lives both at college and after college. It discusses how soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job the student is trained to do. The paper exhorts educators to take special responsibility regarding soft skills, because during students’ university time, educators have major influence on the development of their students’ soft skills. Embedding the training of soft skills into hard skills courses is a very effective and efficient method of achieving both an attractive way of teaching a particular content and an enhancement of soft skills. Soft skills fulfil an important role in shaping an individual’s personality. It is of high importance for every student to acquire adequate skills beyond academic or technical knowledge.
Introduction
For decades employers as well as educators frequently complain about a lack in soft skills among graduates from tertiary education institutions. Predominantly missed are communication skills, but additional knowledge in business or project management is also ranking highly on the list of missing skills desirable for graduates entering the business world. This problem is in no way restricted to developing nations like Namibia; it is also well known to industrial countries around the world. A recent outcry in this regard came from the British Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), which recently reported that “Employers say many graduates lack ‘soft skills’, such as team working” and “They go on to explain that candidates are normally academically proficient but lacking in soft skills such as communication as well as verbal and numerical reasoning.” (AGR, 2007) Already more than 40 years ago the German Engineering Association (VDI) recommended that 20% of
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