Can active learning techniques simultaneously develop students' hard and soft skills? Evidence from an international relations class.

To be a successful professional, one should be equipped with both- hard skills or technical skills and soft skills. Hard skills are the primary skills required to meet technology demands. Its demand will never diminish. But Talent extends beyond technical prowess. The ability to collaborate and navigate complex scenarios is highly valued in the modern workplace. A fine balance of hard and soft skills is pivotal for success in a rapidly evolving professional landscape. Employability today is at par with proving multiple skills in varied situations in this rapidly changing world. Hence, everyone aspiring to get coveted jobs today has to prove one’s strengths in various situations where one requires a set of both hard skills as well as Soft Skills. These skills are limited not only to the professional environment but also required in other spheres of life. The study centres on the role of soft skills like, adaptability, empathy, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving, team work and leadership skills needed for better employability. The present research paper attempts emphasizing the significance of soft skills in the evolving job landscape and to create basic awareness about the significance of soft skills in professional and inter-personal relations

For the effective development of Ukraine in the conditions of global changes (political, economic, social, educational) the priority should be transition to a new economy – knowledge economy. The basis of knowledge economy will be the professional development of specialists in innovative business structures through lifelong learning, in particular formation of their transversal competencies. These qualitatively new specialists will be able to ensure the transition of companies to innovative forms of organization of production activities. The purpose of the article is to reveal the importance of transversal competencies formation among specialists of innovative business structures in lifelong learning to ensure competitiveness of Ukrainian companies at the international level. Methodology. To achieve the goal, general scientific and special research methods were used: comparative analysis and generalization – to study the international experience of innovative business structures; synthesis of theoretical and empirical data – to characterize Ukrainian companies according to the innovation index; structural-functional and system analysis – to study the features of knowledge economy and form hard, soft and business skills. Results. In formation of business structures, Ukraine still uses traditional criteria, while in the world there are innovative approaches – companies "gazelles", clusters, etc. Characteristic features and problems of gazelle companies functioning are analyzed, in particular concerning the personnel component. It is proposed to consider successful enterprises as centers of new economic zones, around which related enterprises, promotion infrastructure, clusters should be purposefully built. It is determined that national economic competitiveness is associated with knowledge and innovation driven capital. Two approaches to the management of business structures are analyzed. The first is based on implementation of subject-subject relationships, development of innovative transversal competencies in order to expand managers' “breadth of management skills" through LLL-education. The second is the experience of innovative enterprises, where management is transformed into information management with its inherent impersonal post / non / management. Formation of the phenomenon of transversal competencies on the basis of LLL-education is analyzed. This is ensured by changes in hard skills, acquisition of new soft skills and integrated business skills, which contributes to the creation of a new generation of professionals. It is determined that business skills are integrated from soft skills, which accumulate intellectual property knowledge, investment and financial literacy, sales skills, presentations and business negotiations, event management, project management, people, their work and time, etc. Emphasis is placed on the importance of forming knowledge economy based on the intellectual potential of society, in which the main levers are the processes of accumulation and use of information and its transformation into knowledge, which depends on the economic progress of the country. It is determined that on the basis of formation of scientific and educational clusters, introduction of crowd technologies, crowdsourcing in education during life the professional development of experts of innovative business structures will be provided. Practical importance. The results of the research can be used in the creation of training programs, retraining, reskilling and changing types of work in the modern production space, which include provisions of knowledge economy for professional development of innovative business structures through lifelong learning. The basic postulates of research can be useful for managers whose companies implement innovative approaches to management, the latest technologies in production activities and promote mobility in retraining in accordance with sociel needs. Correlation/ originality. Conclusions reached will help economists, politologists, social scientists and LLL learning educators to understand the importance of innovative concepts in development business structures and formation transverse competencies based on hard, soft and business skills.

In contemporary teaching, it has become quite common to talk about “active learning.” This discussion initially started in Education, but it soon spread to many disciplines. International Relations (IR) is no exception to this trend, with many scholars and teachers reporting on the use of several active learning techniques in their classrooms. An active learning format that has recently gained popularity is “visual thinking” (VT). VT is considered relevant for teaching in many disciplines, including IR. Several scholars have introduced the use of visual items, such as pictures, cartoons, video games, or art paintings, in their teaching projects. Movies and documentaries are also used for visual teaching. Many IR scholars consider them as effective tools to improve students’ learning, thanks to their supposed capacity to make class contents more understandable and increase student class engagement. By relying on a mixed-method approach, the goal of this study is to empirically assess whether a VT format contributes to improving IR students’ hard skills, measured in terms of grades, and their perceptions about and satisfaction with the class.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution [Industry 4.0 (IR4.0)] transforms industries with intelligent machines, automation and data-driven decision-making. This paradigm shift demands a workforce equipped with both advanced technical know-how and strong soft skills. Traditional curriculum struggles to keep up, creating a skills gap. Targeted micro-credentials can close this gap by offering flexible, bite-sized training aligned to real-world needs. Unlike existing micro-credentials that focus on either hard or soft skills in isolation, this work presents Boosting Engineering Safety and Reliability for IR 4.0: Integrated Approach of Soft and Hard Skills (BESTARI 4.0), as a practical framework that links the macro-drivers of the IR4.0 competency requirements, such as cyber-physical automation, pervasive data and human–machine collaboration. It translates those requirements into micro-credential modules that weave together resource-constrained tiny machine learning‐based engineering techniques with essential soft-skill development, such as critical thinking, communication and team problem-solving. The BESTARI 4.0 micro-credential, delivered on an open online platform, specifies clear learning objectives and experiential tasks, such as video labs, annotated notes, formative quizzes and real-world safety case studies. The ultimate outcome is the development of a proficient workforce in deploying machine learning solutions that enhance productivity while simultaneously improving safety and reliability within next-generation industrial settings.

Educational institutions have had the pending task of knowing what really happens in their classrooms, which professors make a real difference, which students would need help to improve their performance, and even more importantly, how to manage the enormous amount of information gathered each year. To address this problem, in this paper we propose the use of retrospective data from 210 undergraduate courses in Spain, which equals 1,320 European credits, 10,500 students, and four complete academic years (18/19, 19/20, 20/21, 21/22) to generate a monitoring tool or automatic dashboard with which to try to optimize the operation of such institutions and help them to make (even more) optimal decisions. To do this, all courses were grouped into ten typologies or categories: (1) if they were 'soft skills'/'hard skills' courses, (2) if they were taught in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th academic year, (3) if the professor was male or female, (4) whether the course was taught in English or not, (5) whether the professor was internal and permanent staff of the university or an associate professor with a temporary contractual relationship with the institution, (6) whether his/her main professional activity was teaching, therefore being more academic-oriented or this was rather a hobby and a complementary professional activity, therefore being more practical-oriented, (7) their age, (8) if several professors shared the course or only one taught it, (9) if it was a semester or annual course, (10) and if it was taught during the Covid-19 period or outside of it. Our results show that, despite the existence of numerous types of methodologies to achieve the desired student motivation, there would only be one category that would generate significant differences in the grades of the students: if they were ‘soft skills’/’hard skills’ courses. However, on the contrary, there would be much more types of courses (and professors) which would affect the preferences and valuation of the student to the teaching received (and effectively paid by him/her). That is, despite reaching the same academic results, students do value one type of professors better than others. Likewise, through this work it is intended to demonstrate the non-existence of the "false belief" that better evaluations received by professors are since they give higher grades to their students, regardless of its dispersion. In this way, it is intended to prevent possible atypical behaviors by professors. Thus, this paper gives light to (re)consider which variables should actually matter in educational institutions, analyzing its teaching-learning processes, management and even the retention of its key players.

Making Entrepreneurs: Returns to Training Youth in Hard Versus Soft Business Skills

AI meets labor market: Exploring the link between automation and skills

The research paper proposes a skills gap methodology that utilized the respondent experiences in the internship program to measure the importance of the Information Technology (IT) skills gap as perceived by IT students and the industry. The questionnaires were formulated based on previous studies, however, was slightly modified, validated and pilot tested to fit into the needs of the research. Respondents of this study were IT students enrolled in internship while industry respondents were the supervisors of the IT students in their respective company. Internship IT students were selected since they have a strong background on the needs of the company based on their internship experience. The findings revealed that teamwork and communication skills are very important soft skills to be possessed by IT graduates as perceived by the respondents. Further, results reveal that there was no significant difference in the perception of the respondents in terms of the importance of soft skills. However, this finding contradicts the results in the case of hard skills were in there was a big range of disagreement on the importance of hard skills. IT students perceived that hard skills were very important while industry perceived hard skills were somewhat important. It is recognized that soft skills are very important communication tool for a customer oriented industry and that it is essential to enhance the communication skills of IT students for their future employment. The study suggests that the university should target improvements of soft skills and specific personality development component in the curriculum.

Industrial internships are a means for students to gain work experience while at the same time understanding the organizational environment and solving problems in the company/industry. This study aims to map the quality of soft skills and hard skills to the satisfaction of companies/industries where students carry out Industrial Internships, to get the results of mapping the quality of soft skills and hard skills the methods used are Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) and Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI). The object of research used in this study is the population of Industrial Internship students in 2021, amounting to 110 students. The questions used in the questionnaire use a range of 1-7 where the company/industry conducts an assessment by filling out a statement question questionnaire where the distance is 3 months, the distance is the ideal distance for stakeholders in assessing the quality of students' soft skills and hard skills. The implication of the research results from the mapping of soft skills and hard skills of Industrial internships students is that the attributes contained in quadrant A consist of soft skills: self-confidence, motivation, and adaptability. And hard skills: Proficient in maintaining work tools, Learning Speed to use new work tools, and Ability to provide opinions, are attributes that need to be considered by the Department of Electronic Engineering to maintain company/industry trust to continue to accept the Industrial Internship program.

The growth and competition of Indonesia’s hotel industry, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, has hardly pushed them to maintain their corporate and employee performance. The factors related to human resource and hospitality industry, which cloud significantly affects the employee’s performance are employee empowerment, soft skill and hard skill. This research is a quantitative research with hypothesis test. The samples used are 100 active employees of 4 stared rated hotels. This research uses questionnaire as the research instrument and the data analysis conducted by applying Structural Equation Modeling (covariances based SEM). This research contributes to Indonesia’s hotel industry by stating that while the employee empowerment factor has no impact toward the employee performance, both the hard and soft skill factors are positively impacting the employee’s performance in Indonesia’ hotel industry.

The article is dedicated to the research of soft skills structural units and their formation of future social workers, as well as the issue of their professional growth and development. Professional skills consist of specific knowledge and abilities important for performing a particular job and that can be mostly identified, evaluated and measured. Until now, there was a perception that hard or functional- -technical skills were the only skills needed for career growth and development. However, a study carried out at Harvard University shows that 80% of career achievements are determined by soft (social and communication) skills and only 20% by functional and technical skills. Since the labor market currently requires diverse professionals, higher education institutions face new challenges. One of these challenges is to create pedagogical conditions for the development of soft skills, including those of future social workers. The professional competence of a social worker involves three groups of skills, namely hard skills, soft skills and meta skills. We suppose that the mechanism of their formation in the conditions of professional training should be focused on the development of all components of soft skills, and their development provides the necessary professional qualities, the implementation of abilities, and the realization of values in social work. In accordance with the characteristics of future social workers in the development of «soft skills», its characteristic features and peculiarities are clarified, including: creating an informal environment for the formation of social leadership in higher educational institutions; filling the educational program with options for «soft skills», activities aimed at increasing the practice-oriented training of future specialists, the use of active and interactive techniques, forms, methods and means of developing the «soft skills» of social workers. The results of the study include the definition of the concept of «soft skills», the identification of their general characteristics, the outlining of groups of soft skills, and the description of their main components. It was found that the most in-demand flexible competencies are: teamwork, critical thinking, leadership, creativity, meeting deadlines, responsibility and discipline, as well as communication skills, emotional stability, ability to work in stressful situations, adaptability to a new team or working conditions, conflict resolution, critical and creative thinking, public speaking skills, reliability, flexibility, responsibility, priority setting, planning, adequate perception of criticism and readiness for improvement, and professional etiquette proficiency

Since 2000, the focus of employers’ attention in recruiting personnel for a company has been gradually shifting from hard skills towards soft skills. The results of a study carried out by Harvard University and Stanford Research Institute show that the contribution of hard skills to the professional success of an employee accounts for only 15 %, while soft skills add up to the remaining 85 %. Today, it is not enough for a graduate to acquire special knowledge and expertise – they are required to have soft skills to succeed in a job search. The paper discusses the issue of transformation of the qualifying requirements to the job seekers claimed by employers when hiring personnel. The objective of the work is to identify the structure of the key skills and competencies of university students and graduates essential for their successful employment. The analysis of the requirements of employers to graduates of one of the universities was carried out in 2017–2021. The empirical base was a sociological survey of the heads of Russian companies on the issues of the important soft and hard skills of young specialists. The results of the analysis prove that the rapidly changing economic conditions affect the pool of soft skills that are significant in the labor market. The paper presents the structure of soft skills, describes the pool of important skills and competencies that encourage an employer’s decision to hire an inexperienced university graduate. Thus, the results of the study confirm the importance of the development of soft and hard skills of university students and graduates.

This study explores the influence of soft skills and hard skills of students in the Building Engineering Education Program on job readiness in the era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. In an increasingly competitive job market, technical abilities (hard skills) and interpersonal skills (soft skills) are keys to success. Hard skills encompass technical abilities acquired through formal education, while soft skills involve interpersonal abilities, communication, and time management. This research employs a quantitative approach with multiple linear regression analysis to measure the impact of both types of skills on students' job readiness. Data were collected through questionnaires from final semester students of the Building Engineering Education Program at Nias University. The analysis results indicate that both soft skills and hard skills positively and significantly influence students' job readiness. These findings underscore the importance of integrating soft skills and hard skills in preparing students to meet the demands of the digital era job market.

This chapter presents a qualitative study, resulting from a systematic literature review using a text analysis technique through the NVivo software, version 10.0. This technique involves grouping words that reveal semantic similarity to each other and results indicate that considerations around soft and hard skills in tourism have been different over time. In short, it might be said that it is hard skills that lead people to job interviews, but it is soft skills that allow them to be recruited for employment. Hence, it is the combination of the two skill types that enables people to have a job in the tourism industry, manage a career, and contribute to the differentiation of tourism companies in the tourism global marketplace that tends to be increasingly competitive.

In spite of the fact that the term ‘soft skills’ is new in our context, it has a wide range of implications and effects. Soft skills are intangible, nontechnical, personality-specific skills that determine one’s strengths as a leader, facilitator, mediator, and negotiator. Soft skills are contrasted to hard skills in a sense that hard skills are limited to specific area. It is to be noted that in the course of seeking an employment in the market, individual’s soft skills are as important as hard skills. It is found that person’s hard skills lead an individual to the entrance of job market, soft skills guarantee the job opportunity and further career growth. It is urgent that we have to instill our graduates with remarkable amount of soft skills for quick employment. It is always advisable that the companies select human resources with the best non-technical skills that are likely to be available in the labour market. It is further important to foster and develop the employees. Thus, these inter-sectional skills are really important for the promotion and enhancement of the organization. Owing to the same fact, this paper argues how soft skills as employability are fundamental requirement for entry-level Jobs.