While technical skills are very important for success in business, there are other non-technical skills (soft skills) which hold equal importance in the employability factor of an individual. A number of surveys have been made worldwide to identify the broad requirements in terms of attributes and skills, which are common to all types of job profiles. This article attempts to identify such skill sets that influence employability.

"Soft skills are hard requirements", "Soft skills help avoid the hard knocks", are all too familiar phrases in the work environment these days. Soft skills are considered to be very important for success in business today, especially when interaction and communication are at a premium. Of late, the development and possession of soft skills was also being seen as the potential for employability of an individual. Obviously, the content and theme of employability are changing. Creating lifelong employment capabilities in individuals is a role found to be played by the development and enhancement of soft skills so much so that the terms are being used interchangeably. Nowadays, soft skill is not only used to skills required by individuals to enter the workplace but also to sustain oneself in the workplace.

When we talk of soft skills, it is generally referring to all those skills that help an individual to develop, right from thinking to analyze, to solve problems, to communicate, etc. We may not be really sure of the entire range of soft skills and may also differ at times in what is included in the realm of soft skills but we are all, however, quite clear that they are different from the technical or the hard skills required for work. Added to all this is the inclusion of the relationship between soft skills and the employability quotient of an individual. `Soft skill' is the terms being used interchangeably with the term `employability skills'. This means that in order to increase the chances of being employed continuously throughout life, an individual must, in addition to technical skills necessarily possess soft skills.

Soft Skills and the Employability Factor, skills, employability, important, technical, interchangeably, identify, continuously, employed, enhancement, environment, familiar, influence, capabilities, lifelong, nontechnical, phrases, premium, potential, possession, quotient, relationship, communication