Soft skills

Soft skills are a combination of interpersonal people skills, social skills, communication skills, character traits, attitudes, career attributes and emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) among others that enable people to effectively navigate their environment, work well with others, perform well, and achieve their goals with complementing hard skills. The Collins English Dictionary defines the term "soft skills" as “desirable qualities for certain forms of employment that do not depend on acquired knowledge: they include common sense, the ability to deal with people, and a positive flexible attitude.”

From 1959 U.S. Army invested considerable resources in technology-based development of training procedures. In 1968 the U.S. Army officially introduced a training doctrine known as "Systems Engineering of Training" covered in the document CON Reg 350-100-1.

PG Whitmore cited the CON Reg 350-100-1 definition:

"... job related skills involving actions affecting primarily people and paper, e.g., inspecting troops, supervising office personnel, conducting studies, preparing maintenance reports, preparing efficiency reports, designing bridge structures.

and criticized it as vague. At the 1972 CONARC Soft Skills Conference Dr. Whitmore presented a report aimed at figuring out how the term "soft skills" (in the areas of command, supersivion, counseling and leadership) is understood in various CONARC schools. After designing and processing a questionnaire, the following tentative definition was formulated:

with a remark "in other words, those job functions about which we know a good deal are hard skills and those about which we know very little are soft skills."

Another questionnaire was processed to evaluate whether "soft skills" were adequately specified (what is to be performed, under what conditions and how performance must be evaluated) in Army documents (manuals, reports, etc.), with negative conclusion.

It is through a 1972 US Army training manual identified formal usage of the term "soft skills" began.

Soft skills are a cluster of productive personality traits that characterize one's relationships in a milieu. These skills can include social graces, communication abilities, language skills, personal habits, cognitive or emotional empathy, time management, teamwork and leadership traits. A definition based on review literature explains soft skills as an umbrella term for skills under key three functional elements people skills, social skills and personal career attributes. National Business Education Association deems soft skills as critical for being industrious in today’s workplace. Soft skills complement hard skills also known as technical skills, for productive workplace performance and everyday life competencies (Arkansas Department of Education, 2007). Hard skills were the only skills necessary for career employment and were generally quantifiable and measurable from educational background, work experience or through interview. In the 20th century soft skills are a major differentiator, a sine qua non for employability and success in life. A study conducted by Harvard University noted that 80% of achievements in career are determined by soft skills and only 20% by hard skills. Experts say soft skills training should begin for a person when they are students, to perform efficiently in their academic environment as well as in their future workplace. A public interest study conducted by McDonald’s in UK predicted over half a million people will be held back from job sectors by 2020 due to lack of soft skills.

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Wikipedia