NASSCOM recently proclaimed that 90% graduates and 75% engineers in our country are unemployable. This is because of the lack of sufficient Soft Skills.
A survey of 303 employers across the country by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) in 2010 found a majority of graduates lacked adequate "soft skills" to be employed in the industry.
Only about one-third employers were satisfied with the communication ability of their employees and about 26 per cent with their employees' writing ability. If this trend continues, the prospects for the 1.4 billion youth estimated to enter the work force by 2020, and consequently for the economy, look anything but promising.
The Ficci survey found that only 26 per cent employers are satisfied with their employees' ability to communicate in English, "the most widely used professionally communicated language". According to the survey of decision-makers in the country, which included top CEOs, MDs and human resource directors, the importance of "soft skills" in today's employment landscape cannot be overemphasized. The human resource development ministry agrees to the fact that 'soft skill development' is an area that needs urgent attention in our education system.
Often, CEOs and HR personnel say that they prefer hiring people who demonstrate a high level of soft skills as such people can always be trained for the technical skills a job requires. CEO s and human resource managers said they are ready to hire workers who demonstrate a high level of "soft skills" and then train them for the specific jobs available. The ever-changing impact of technology has given hard-skills-only workers a short shelf life.
Studies by Stanford Research Institute and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation among Fortune 500 CEOs found that 75% of long term job success depended on people skills and only 25% on technical skills. Noted academic Prof. Henry Mintzberg while speaking on the importance of soft skills for MBAs, refers to the crucial "soft" skills - leadership, teamwork, communication, and the ability to think "outside the box" of a discipline - that separate the best from the rest in the management world."
Companies in India are finding that they have to promote people faster than ever before to meet their growth needs. At the same time, they are finding that the candidates do not have the necessary skills to make the transition from a technical or functional specialist to a team leader, supervisor or manager. Industries like IT, ITES, Finance, Banking, Insurance, Aviation, Telecom, Retail, Travel & Tourism, Biotech and Pharmaceuticals have found that their people need soft skills to work effectively in cross-functional or project teams, local teams or global teams.
Many organizations point out that soft skills are high in the list of requirements for global business; hence an important part of management training. They have found that softskills training make a greater impact on clients from across the world rather than a high degree of technical skills. The soft skills also require one to be smart and efficient.The people most likely to be hired for available jobs have what employers call 'Soft Skills'.
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