To distinguish between candidates, interviewers may focus more on soft skills like communication and social savvy when making their decisions, according to a Chemical & Engineering News article by Linda Wang.
The study, The future of business education & the needs of employers, conducted by Hult Labs for Hult International Business School, led to the complete overhaul of the Hult MBA to put more emphasis on soft skills.
Procurement regulations need to give greater discretion to country-based staff to select consultants that they think are a good fit for the job, place more emphasis on soft skills and country knowledge and, crucially, give the recipient government greater say in the selection process.
As such, workers with more cognitive or soft skills compared to workers in his or her field may choose a job in another field if occupations in the other field offer higher pay or better working conditions; workers with fewer skills may be crowded out in their field.
I recently spoke with Lego Foundation CEO Hanne Rasmussen about how schools must do more to build soft skills and allow for playtime as well as focus on numerical and literacy skills.
The problem with recruitment these days is that recruiters need more than paper credentials, and now often rely more on people's "soft skills," such as creativity, ingenuity, and resilience.
According to Burning Glass, technical skills now dominate in terms of the sheer number of competencies demanded in job descriptions — more than cognitive and soft skills combined for virtually every career.
Soft skills, entrepreneurship, more overseas fieldwork, big data and a multidisciplinary approach to study are prominent themes in schools' redesign of their curricula.
"Businesses are not finding the workers with the skills they're looking for, and they want to see students with more of the interpersonal and soft skills," said Cheryl Davidson, executive director of Long Island Works.
