Soft-skills – how do we get them?

Everyone is aware of the term soft-skills, less people are familiar with the term self-skills. 

Employers refer to soft-skills a great deal, seeking to recruit individuals who possess “inter personal skills”, “communication skills”, “positive attitude”, “determined confident individuals” etc.

KPMG, a leading provider of professional services in the UK, has produced a report, Global Skills for Graduates in Financial Services, which emphasises that current graduates entering the sector are usually technically proficient but are very often lacking in soft business skills.  The "soft" skills employers feel many graduates lack include teamwork, good communication, drive, energy and a "can do" attitude.

Ian Gomes, chairman of KPMG's new and emerging markets practice, said:

"Our report shows that graduates are leaving education with inspiring theoretical knowledge but lack practical job related skills.  There is a 'soft skills gap' developing.” 

Other large employers and UK Government representatives have echoed the sentiments above.  The UK is not the only country with this growing challenge.

There are a plethora of causes of the skills-gap, one of which can be attributed to societies apparent incapacity to prepare young people and develop their self-skills for learning, life and work.

Skills are one of the key building blocks for economic growth and prosperity and a major component in combating social exclusion and achieving greater social mobility. The attainment of skills and their effective use are widely seen as key policy goals for the UK government and they matter even more in the new global economy that is emerging around us.

Is it possible that what is in fact required is an educational focus on the development of individuals’ self-skills.  After all, a self-aware, self-confident individual with a positive self-image and self-belief is much more likely to demonstrate the soft-skills employers are looking for than a person with low self-skills.

If we follow this logic and subscribe to it then we are agreeing with the idea that in order to develop soft skills one must first develop self-skills. 

Currently we are seeing the effects of a lack of self-skill development for young people.  Of course in order to reverse this trend we need to focus on those solutions that target the cause(s) and provide resolution to this growing problem.  The gate has opened and the horses have run away.  To prevent the gate opening even further and discovering ourselves in a far worse position in a decade or two from now we MUST take action.  An early intervention would produce the greatest long-term effect; therefore we must build a far greater self-skill development focus into our education systems helping young people broaden their self-skills from an earlier age.