ASSOCHAM BUSINESS BAROMETER STUDY

Importance of Soft Skills: Students Perspective

June 2009

Prepared by: Nusrat Ahmad Assocham Research Bureau

89 per cent of students enhance soft skills for achieving success in future career: ASSOCHAM Apart from good academic records and work experience, 89 per cent of students feel that soft skills such as oral communication, written communication and team work needs to be enhanced to land up into money minting industries, according to Assocham Business Barometer (ABB)

The study on Importance of Soft Skills: Students Perspective says that out of the 15 transferable skills identified by Assocham Research Bureau (ARB) to be perceived by university students, 76 per cent of the them consider oral communication as the most preferred soft skill for future career, whereas written communication (72 per cent) and team work (67 per cent) were the second and third most preferred option among the students. Corporate India has two major concerns first to hire good employees and secondly to train them. Soft skills learned by students during their university education help them to learn the trade efficiently by using their technical abilities as a part of a team, to understand conflict as a means for discussion instead of an angry confrontation, and to respect difference as a creative opportunity rather than an obstacle, said Mr.D.S.Rawat, Secretary General, ASSOCHAM.

ASSOCHAMs study is based on the survey of 427 students attending graduate and post graduate courses across 12 universities/colleges/institutes. The survey focused on important skills perceived by students to develop along with their higher education to gain good jobs.

Soft skills also called as Transferable skills, Employability skills, Generic skills or Key skills are not job specific, but are skills which serve horizontally across all industries and vertically across all jobs at all levels in an industry. The

degree to which students develop these skills determines how well they can communicate, make presentations & reports, solve problems, function in teams, self assess and do performance reviews of others, learn new knowledge, and manage stress when they have to cope with changes.

Degree Year
Graduation 1st year 2nd year 3rd year

Prominent soft skills perceived by respondents

Fluency in second language, Problem Solving, IT Skill Oral Communication, Analytical Ability, Team Work Oral Communication, Written Communication, Team Work, Leadership Oral Communication, Written Communication, Presentation Skill, Research

Post- Graduation

Skill, Decision Making, Leadership, Coping with Multiple Task

Source: Assocham Research Bureau

ARB observed that 58 per cent of the students in first and second year of their graduation are least concerned in developing their employability skills, whereas 93 per cent of third year graduates and post graduate students are keen to acquire on an average more than 5-6 skills.

Sixty three per cent of the students agree that individual personality plays an important role in acquiring any skill. Fifty two per cent of the students feel that soft skills should be learnt on the job instead of university/college.

Forty eight per cent of the students expressed that prominent soft skills can be developed during class presentations and through information management.

Presentation skills and time management skills are perceived to be among the most important skills learnt by students yet 44 per cent of them are not able to master this skill, scoring average points on it.

Certain commercial skills such as leadership quality, coping with multi-tasking and networking that are required in all types of jobs are considered as least important by students due to general lack of clarity about their career direction.

On an average 1.4 crore students get enrolled every year in various graduate and post graduate courses across Indian Universities. ASSOCHAM feels that employers found that entry level job applicants are deficient in soft skills, thus, the apex chamber suggests, the need of the hour is that higher learning schools or institutions needs to lay more emphasis on developing these skills by encouraging students to identify it.

Annexure I

Importance of Soft Skills: Students Perspective QUESTIONNAIRE

This questionnaire undertakes opinion of graduate and post graduate students on soft skills they need to develop for future careers. This will help ASSOCHAM Research Bureau (ARB) to understand the related issue from students perspective. The responses provided would be kept strictly confidential and analysis will be done only in the aggregate. The information is being used only for research purpose. We appreciate your time and effort to complete this questionnaire. Thanking You

Name of University/College/Institute: Name of the Course Enrolled: Graduation Year: Please rank the soft skill in ascending order of your preference: Soft Skill Rank/Preference
Oral communication Written communication Team work Research/Report skill Analytical ability Decision making Fluency in second language Information management Time management Leadership Networking Presentation skill Coping with multiple task

Planning IT skill

Which of the above skills are perceived to be important but is scored low by you during higher education?

Do you think soft skills should be enhanced/learned during: Higher Education Job/Work Experience

Does individual personality plays an important role in acquiring soft skills? Yes No

Are you consistent and decisive about the direction of your career? Yes No