IT and other corporates and some recruitment agencies recruit
students of engineering for various positions at the end
of their pre-final year. Along with the academic grades,
these skills assessment companies and campus recruitment
agencies measure candidates' creativity, innovation and
soft skills during their multiple hurdle selection process.
The measurement and recording of students' creative and
innovative talents along with soft skills, is the responsibilty
of the institute. This paper is an empirical study on students'
soft skills such as creativity, research orientation, ability
to work with numbers and text, ability to manage people,
organizing and marketing capabilities. For this study, final
year students of two branches of engineering were administered
with core soft skills inventory test. Factor and Reliability
analysis determined composite reliability and Cronbach Alpha.
Using correlation coefficients and chi-square test of independence,
it was observed that the gender, branch of engineering and
academic credits of students seem to have little influence
on their core soft skills. The findings show that it is
possible to tune, shape and develop creativity and soft
skills among all students with well-planned training programs.
This study helps soft skills trainers to design competency-based
curriculum.
Prasad Kaipa and Thomas Milus opine that Soft skills are
the keystones to success. Soft skills like leadership, decision
making, conflict resolution, negotiation, communication,
creativity and presentation skills are essential for entrepreneurial
success and for maximizing human capital in any organization.
When balanced with a good management team and an effective
human resource management system, soft skills provide a
way to get the highest return on investment in terms of
human capital. While professional skills may open the door
of opportunity, soft skills help to perform better in workplace.
It is necessary to maximize the human capital by balancing
the focus on imparting soft skills, building the management
team, and creating an appropriate talent management system.
These are like three corners of a triangle; ignoring or
failing to pay adequate attention to any of the three, will
impede success. Soft skills are critical to all facets of
any organization. They can provide great energy and cohesion
for the members of the organization.
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