Investigating the Perception of Stakeholders on Soft Skills Development of Students: Evidence from South Africa.

Introduction Joseph, Ang, Chang, and Slaughter (2010) refer to a growing awareness that technical skills alone are insufficient for success in IT, particularly in today's dynamic, distributed, and complex workplace. A broader set of skills, beyond traditional technical skills, are required, and these are labelled soft skills. Employers complain about a lack in soft skills among graduates from tertiary education institutions (Schulz, 2008). The situation is further complicated because no agreement exists about what these skills actually are, which are of importance and how acquiring them should be approached in higher education (Adomssent et al., 2007). For many years industry recruiters have been emphasizing the importance of soft kills, e.g., interpersonal communication skills and teamwork (Russell, Russell, & Tastle, 2005). The possession of soft skills is strongly associated with life and employment success (Gibb, 2014) and the realisation of importance of soft skills is on the increase (Azim et al., 2010). According to Bancino and Zevalkink (2007) the increased demand for a broader skill set is because of the necessity for improvements to the bottom line, increasing competition, and globalization. Business executives consider soft skills a very important attribute in job applicants because soft skills are seen as critical for productive performance (Robles, 2012). It is not enough to be academically strong; employees need to work with other cultures, communicate well, and be punctual and dependable (Gewertz, 2007). Soft skills are becoming increasingly important, and soft skills such as teamwork and collaboration, planning and leading projects, presentation delivery, and writing skills will be critical for success in the Information Systems profession (Noll & Wilkins, 2002). The aim of this paper is to research the perceptions of lecturers, industry, and students on soft skills, and to identify important soft skills that need to be developed. The paper starts with a problem statement emphasizing the importance of soft skills and the possible lack thereof. In the literature review the terminology is defined, and a list of important soft skills is compiled. This is followed by a description of the methodology followed for this research, the results, conclusion and the references. Problem Statement Bancino and Zevalkink (2007) wrote that the focus of education and training is on technical topics and mathematics, science, and technical skills, yet the fast-paced, global marketplace of today is demanding more. Technical professionals in disciplines such as information technology, engineering, architecture, and research and development are increasingly required to broaden their skill sets to master the so-called soft skills. The skills gap that has employers worried isn't the technical skills gap, but the soft skills gap. Senior management complain about the lack of soft skills in new employees and emphasize that knowledge alone is not enough to succeed, but that effective communication also influences success (Klaus, 2010). The practical importance of soft skills has been amply illustrated through research attempting to define factors related to project and project management success (Stevenson & Starkweather, 2010). Technical skills are a part of most educational curricula, but soft skills need further emphasis in the university curricula (Robles, 2012). Douglas (2002) argues, ". it is an accepted truism that some people who are gifted from a scientific and technical point of view find their career progress checked by their fundamental difficulties with managing people. They cannot be blamed for their lack of facility in this area, their entire training has been based around acquiring the rigorous knowledge they need to succeed at a technical level in their industry. Expecting them automatically to excel at managing people is at best naive and at worst quite unreasonable". …