{"id":116930,"date":"2021-08-09T15:57:45","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T22:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=116930"},"modified":"2021-08-09T15:58:32","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T22:58:32","slug":"advice-to-graduating-students-balancing-hard-and-soft-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/09\/advice-to-graduating-students-balancing-hard-and-soft-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice to graduating students: Balancing Hard and Soft Skills."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma, PhD<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graduating from a university or any higher\neducational institution marks a very important milestone in one\u2019s life. It is a\nvery significant event not only for the graduate but also for the family\nmembers and well-wishers who supported the student during the studies, morally,\nfinancially and otherwise. Studying for a degree is an endeavor involving heavy\ninvestment of time and money, great sacrifices and many opportunities gained\nand lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such a great investment of time and\nmoney, and sacrifices, one is expected to be successful in the years after\ngraduation by getting a rewarding employment, providing mental satisfaction and\nhappiness to him and to all those who supported him.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What sort of advice can the seniors with life\ntime experiences provide to graduating students so that they could derive appropriate\nrewards for their years long strenuous efforts? We often hear, and some of us\nhave actually experienced that how the non-availability of timely advice has\nhindered progress of many graduates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on experiences of those who have gone\nthrough this process (through the mill) during their careers, many advices can\nbe generated. It is difficult to address all the areas that a graduating\nstudent should pay attention to in preparation for the next phase of their\ncareer, employment, in a short article such as this. However, this article\nintends to cover a few important aspects relating to the skills that a graduate\nshould possess and sharpen to lead a successful professional career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Required\nSkills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is recognized that for a graduate to secure\na job and keep it, certain skills need to be acquired and maintained. These\nskills are known as Hard Skills<\/strong> and Soft Skills<\/strong>. It is also established\nthat a good balance of the two types of skills is a prerequisite for a\nsuccessful career. The actual balance between the two types of skills necessary\nto be successful could depend on the type of business you are in, the level of\nthe corporate ladder you are placed at, etc. What are the hard skills and soft skills?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hard\nSkills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the core skills that graduates\nprimarily gain through their education and training at their academic\ninstitutions. These skills would vary from profession to profession or business\nto business. They can include skills such as engineering design, accounting\nstrategies, computer programming, clinical diagnosis, criminal investigation,\nlegal analysis, etc. These are the skills required to carry out the core\nbusiness of an organization and to get the job done. Hard skills are teachable\nand measurable. In practice however, it is proven that the hard skills alone\nare not sufficient to run a business successfully or a graduate to be\nprofessionally successful. A set of soft skills is also needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soft\nSkills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soft Skills are also known as People Skills or\nInterpersonal Skills. They are not easily teachable as compared to hard skills.\nSoft skills are similar to emotions or insights that allow people to \u2018read\u2019\nothers. Most of the soft skills are learned through practice and experience. They\nare much harder to be measured and evaluated. What are the types of soft skills\nthat graduates need to acquire and maintain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following is a list of some common soft skills\nthat most of the young graduates need to acquire and practise:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Communication Skills<\/li>
  • Flexibility<\/li>
  • Dependability<\/li>
  • Teamwork<\/li>
  • Work Ethics<\/li>
  • Positivity<\/li>
  • Time Management<\/li>
  • Problem Solving<\/li>
  • Critical Thinking<\/li>
  • Conflict Resolution<\/li>
  • Project Planning<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    There are many more soft skills. The above is\na representative list of soft skills that are more relevant to day-to-day work.\nIt is important for the fresh graduates to be aware of the importance of these\nskills and learn them and practise. The graduates will start realizing that\ntheir services are better valued by peers and seniors as they begin to\ncomplement their hard skills with more and more soft skills. The important\npoint is that most of these skills which one learns and sharpens during their\nemployment can be transferred to any future jobs. The recruiters usually look\nfor and value the transferable skills that a prospective employee could bring\ninto a new job, from their prior experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Transferrable\nSkills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Transferable skills can\nbe from both hard skills and soft skills. For example, a transferable hard\nskill could be a mastery of a particular software or a coding language that can\nbe used in other business settings. However, soft skills are more easily\ntransferable due to their generic nature and universal applicability. Some of\nthe most common soft skills that are transferable, include: Leadership,\nCommunication Skills, Teamwork, Time Management, Problem Solving, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Balancing of Hard Skills and Soft Skills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While appreciating the\nimportance of both hard skills and soft skills, graduates need to strike a\nbalance between the two types. Further, they need to be aware that what\nweightage the recruiters or managers assign to these two types of skills. The preference\nmay be skewed towards hard skills at the beginning of one\u2019s career and may gradually\nshift to soft skills as one moves higher in the corporate ladder. Various\nsurveys conducted in the USA and elsewhere indicate that recruiters tend to\ngive equal or more weightage to soft skills than to hard skills. Graduates need\nto be aware of this and give necessary priority to acquiring and maintaining\nsoft skills in addition to the hard skills they learned during their higher\nstudies. It is generally believed that hard skills help you get a job and soft\nskills help you to keep it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Skills Gap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Due to rapid\ntechnological changes taking place around us and also due somewhat outdated\ncurricula followed by some academic institutions, there exists a Skills Gap.\nThe Skills Gap is the divide between the skills employers expect employees to\nhave and the skills employees and job seekers actually possess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Advice to graduating students<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Graduating students need\nto be aware of the importance of hard skills and soft skills needed to be\nsuccessful in getting a job and maintaining it. Due prominence and emphasis to\nthe skills possessed need to be given in their resumes when applying for jobs\nand attending job interviews. Both hard skills and soft skills need to be\ndeveloped, kept up-to-date and sharpened all the time. The balance between the\ntwo types needs to be maintained depending on the job environment. Also, it is\nimportant to keep an eye on the Skills Gap and try to bridge this gap by one\u2019s\nown additional efforts. The following quote puts the situation in context:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     There\u2019s\nnot one specific thing or skill people have to have to work for us. But I can\ntell you why we fire people: soft skills. We hire for hard skills. We fire for\nsoft skills. \u2026\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Rick Stephens, Senior Vice President of HR, The Boeing Corporation<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma, PhD Background Graduating from a university or any higher educational institution marks a very important milestone in one\u2019s life. It is a very significant event not only for the graduate but also for the family members and well-wishers who supported the student during the studies, morally, financially and otherwise. Studying for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}