Graduate Employability, ‘Soft Skills’ Versus ‘Hard’ Business Knowledge: A European Study

Hard evidence on soft skills.

This paper summarizes recent evidence on what achievement tests measure; how achievement tests relate to other measures of "cognitive ability" like IQ and grades; the important skills that achievement tests miss or mismeasure, and how much these skills matter in life. Achievement tests miss, or perhaps more accurately, do not adequately capture, soft skills-personality traits, goals, motivation...

Graduate Employability in Asia

Hard thinking on soft skills

The nation’s PK-12 education ecosystem is poised to embrace programs intended to enhance soft skills. Soft skills are generally defined by exclusion as personal qualities other than the formal knowledge transmitted by schools that affect student adjustment, i.e., the effort that students put into their work and their social skills. Such soft skills are far too important for the education reform...

Hard knowledge, soft values

The paper contrasts two domains of school education, natural science and citizenship education (as a paradigm of “hard” and “soft” subjects), with respect to their epistemological and ethical foundations. A sharp contrast between their associated world-views within the school community is accentuated at the outset. The epistemological shortcomings inherent in both are subsequently explored, and...

Business knowledge and skills.

Andrew N. Garman, Psy.D., associate professor and director of master’s programs, Department of Health Systems Management, Rush University, Chicago; Teresa Burkhart, senior director, Rush Health Associates, and assistant professor, Department of Health Systems Management, Rush University; and Jeremy Strong, administrator, Surgical Services, and instructor, Department of Health Systems Management...