by
Dr BMK Perera
Director/Career Guidance Unit
University of Peradeniya
Soft skills are also
referred to as
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Employability skills
Key skills
Core skills
Interpersonal skills
Transferable skills
Fallows, 2002
Soft skills defined …
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Skills, abilities and traits that pertain to
personality, attitude and behavior
Moss and Tilly, 1996
Soft skills: The two domains
Examples of Interpersonal
(interactive) soft skills …
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Team work
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Relationship-building
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Adaptability
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Written and oral communication
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Friendliness
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Attire
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Grooming
Examples of Intrapersonal
(motivational) soft skills
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Planning/ organizing
Taking initiative
Problem solving
Showing enthusiasm
Stress tolerance
Dependability
Creative thinking and innovation
Time management
Willingness to learn
Coachability
Importance
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Employers criticize university output as
having their heads full of theories,
concepts and principles but graduates
are often ill-equipped to deal with real
life situations
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‘Soft skills are a lot harder to teach in the
world of work‘
Wall Street Journal Article, 2002
Importance
(continued)
• Companies are going global, and often,
technical experts are called upon to do a
variety of non-technical tasks requiring
soft skills
• Currently, people management skills are
placed higher than strategic management
skills and process management
• Source: BMW Presentation made at University of Rhode Island, 2002
Effective_engineer
Predictors of success in the
world of work
IQ
Predicts < 30%
of a person’s
success
Predicts >70% of
a person’s
success
EQ
Soft skills domain
AQ
Relates to
resilience
Targeting soft skills
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Inclusion of career guidance in academic
program
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Outward bound training (Experiential learning)
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Debates/ public speaking competitions/
Toastmasters Club
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Strengthening of student societies
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Competitions for projects displaying innovative
thinking and team work
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Mentoring programs within and outside the
system (limited numbers)
Targeting soft skills in
academic programs
• Lectures/ workshops on campus
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Time management
Stress management
Conflict resolution/ negotiation/ mediation
Effective presentations
Assertive behavior
Understanding teamwork
Covey’s 7 habits of effective people
CV writing and interview facing (in the last year)
Embedded
model
Highest level of integration
Integrated
model
Skills taught within a given discipline,
specialty or faculty
Learning Centre
model
Centralized support service providing
generic skills, operating outside
curriculum/ Can offer ‘Bolted on’
courses
Osmosis model
(Expect students to acquire soft skills
while following their academic
programs
Targeting soft skills in
Outward bound Training
• Popular with the corporate sector
• Historically used for training survival skills to
seamen in 1941
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Highly participative
Interactive
Simulates real life situations
Adaptable to needs of the learner
Excellent for changing attitudes and developing
team spirit
Targeting soft skills in
Outward bound Training
• MIT, Sloan Center, Sloan School for
Management example
• Provided by outside organization (off the
campus)
• Used to build camaraderie
• Students set personal goals
• Decide on extracurricular activities to engage in
• Develop academic operating norms for the
semester (Develop a team charter)
• A lot of physical activities
Way to develop the
proposal…
Intervention 1
Intervention 2
First,
select a
set of soft
skills to
target
Intervention 3
Equifinality
-Identify concrete needs for university or faculty
Determine possible overlaps
-Augment teaching with programs where needed
Soft skill 1
First, select
an activity/
intervention
Soft skill 2
Soft skill 3
Irrespective of the approach
there is a need to look at;
• Cost, time and feasibility issues
• Degree of change possible
• Relevance to the university
Workshops for Student Society
Leaders