Selecting soft skills to be taught at university
Since 2010 the demand on soft skills while hiring employees has been increasing. They are of critical importance for graduates’ employability, job maintenance and promotion. The list of soft skills offered by different researchers is huge, some skills are given various names – all this is confusing for educators who want to integrate soft skills into their curricula and syllabi. Consequently, the research aimed to determine which of the skills required by Georgian and Greek employers are not sufficiently developed among recent graduates. An online employer questionnaire was applied. 91 employers from various fields of economy and parts of Georgia and 54 from Greece participated in the research. The conclusion was made that the following soft skills demanded by Georgian employers are simultaneously demanded and insufficiently developed among recent graduates: connecting existing knowledge to new knowledge, critical thinking, problem-solving, stress coping, discipline and organisation, and decision-making. Additionally, the Greek employers named effective leadership skills, while they did not select critical thinking as the most lacking ones. A recommendation was given to emphasise these soft skills while developing curricula and syllabi for Georgian and Greek universities.
Keywords: soft skills, university curricula, graduates’ employment
