`Soft skills' are the extra or additional skills required by engineers of the 21<sup>st</sup> century. Effective communication and interpersonal skills are crucial to increase employability and also to compete successfully in this dynamic global environment. Soft skills provide students with a strong conceptual and practical framework in building, developing and managing teams. It plays an important role in the overall personality development thereby enhancing the student's career prospects. Some of the `soft skills' that are necessary for being successful are leadership quality, team work, conflict management skills, interpersonal skills, self-management skills, decision making capacity, futuristic thinking, continuous learning capacity, empathy, persuasion, negotiation, presentation skills, personal effectiveness, diplomacy, orientation towards goal, flexibility, good customer service, written and oral communication skills, creativity/innovation, and problem solving capacity. This study reveals the importance of soft skills, taking into consideration 14 core dimensions, which play a vital role in the overall personality development of the engineering students. The above mentioned dimensions have been considered while measuring the presence of soft skills.

Soft skills for engineers have become indispensable in this highly competitive global environment. Students with a generous measure of soft skills will be able to manage well in this competitive world. Soft skills provide students with a strong conceptual and practical knowledge in building, developing and managing teams. This can transform them to self-confident individuals, capable of managing diverse situations in organizations.

Present and future organizational settings for the engineers require certain soft skills, which go beyond those taught in traditionally designed university programs. Many of these professional skills fall under the general categories of communication and team work. Such skills must be considered as key qualifications.

Engineers with additional aptitudes or skills can distinguish themselves from their peers. When decisions have to be made during rightsizing or downsizing, those with extra skills will be the ones who would survive such exercises (Ted, 2000).

Soft Skills Journal, Effective Communication, Interpersonal Skills, Conceptual and Practical Framework, Conflict Management Skills, Global Environment, Organizational Settings, Sales Strategies, Attention, Information, Desire and Actualization, AIDA, Industrial Manufacturing and Management, IIMM, Decision Making.