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In this study, we assessed a highly structured, yearlong, case-based course designed for undergraduate pre-health students. We incorporated both content learning assessments and developed a novel method called Multiple Mini Exams for assessing course impact on the development of skills that professional schools often seek in pre-health students, focusing on students' abilities to collaborate with others, display bedside manners, synthesize patient case details, appropriately use scientific and medical language, and effectively attain patients' medical histories. This novel method utilized a rubric based on desired medical student skills to score videotaped behaviors and interactions of students role playing as doctors in a hypothetical patient case study scenario. Overall, our findings demonstrate that a highly structured course, incorporating weekly student performance and presentation of patient cases encompassing history taking, diagnosis, and treatment, can result in content learning, as well as improve desired skills specific for success in medical fields.

Recent studies claimed that the absence of a paradigm is a challenge to developing education for sustainable development and soft skills competencies. This integrative study examines stimulating these transferable and transversal competencies through constructivist approaches to teaching from the cognitive, social, radical, and critical perspectives. The study argues that the use of constructivist approaches to teaching can contribute to the achievement of education for sustainable development and soft skills competencies through the delegation of power from teachers/lecturers to students. This, in active and interactive classrooms, empowers students and builds their confidence to develop on the personal, academic, and professional levels. The use of the cognitive constructivist approach assists in developing competencies based on a clear understanding of the cognitive structures of students in a vibrant classroom environment. The use of the social constructivist approach assists in constructing individualized learning environment based on predetermined zones of proximal development in sociocultural contexts. The radical and critical constructivist approaches to teaching, through the rejection of conventional epistemologies, allow students the freedom to creatively address issues related to environmental, economic, and social sustainability. This becomes effective through the fostering of self and social awareness, challenging existing ideas, and provoking innovative thoughts that are necessary to shape a sustainable future.

The focus of this study was to assess the skill requirements for data analytics positions and to understand data analysis employment expectations for new graduates. Furthermore, this work seeks to highlight issues relevant to curriculum management in university degree programs. 786 job postings were analyzed for domain-related, soft skills, as well as degree requirements. Soft skills, often referred to as people skills, comprised the largest part of the results (11 of the top 21 skills). Results revealed the most frequent soft skills were related to communication and teams or teamwork. The most frequent domain skills were related to visualization, data cleaning, data extraction and programming. Implications for curriculum based on results are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.

Prospective graduate students' noncognitive attributes are commonly evaluated as a part of a holistic review of their admission applications. Yet it is difficult to determine which noncognitive attributes are considered by those who evaluate graduate admissions applications and what approaches they take to measure applicants' noncognitive attributes. It is even less clear to what degree prospective graduate students understand how they are evaluated for graduate admissions and how the evaluation of their noncognitive attributes factor into admissions decisions. Drawing on surveys of graduate enrollment management (GEM) professionals and prospective graduate students in the United States, our study investigated the noncognitive attributes prospective graduate students and GEM professionals deem important to success in graduate school and the application components each group believes demonstrate those attributes. Results suggest that some alignment exists between the perspectives of prospective graduate students and GEM professionals on the noncognitive attributes most important for completing a graduate program of study. We share recommendations for improving the agreement between prospective graduate students and GEM professionals including the need for more explicit and transparent communication about how graduate admissions applications are evaluated, which is of particular importance as admissions processes forgo the consideration of applicants' race.

Our principal objective is to explore if interculturality is relevant for the success of a bilateral student mobility program, Mexico-Japan Technical and Academic Exchange Program (MJTAEP). First, the authors explain their methodology and objectives of field work. Second, they situate their analysis within a framework of growing academic cooperation, common ends, and variability, depending on national objectives. Third, they consider the motivations/aspirations of Mexican fellowship holders, as stated by respondents to an electronic survey (106), as well as in-depth interviews (21). The authors look specifically at the quality of courses aimed at providing linguistic, cultural, and technical tools to the Mexican grantees. Two topics are evaluated in detail: (1) the drivers and obstacles of academic integration of Mexicans in Japanese universities, and (2) the acquisition of hard and soft skills (relationships with sensei, alumni or administrative officers and knowledge/proficiency requirements) to facilitate student incorporation in the host society and institutions.

In today's job market, soft skills are increasingly crucial, surpassing technical knowledge. Traditional lectures fall short in teaching these skills, prompting universities to explore new methods of instruction. A Turkish public university introduced a curriculum with non-disciplinary courses called Personal Development Pathway (PDP) courses for its Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) department. These courses aim to enhance soft skills, motivate students, foster positive relationships, and improve employability. Employing Positive Education approach, the PDP courses include hands-on learning, one-on-one meetings, exercises, interactions with professionals, and self-reflection. This study evaluates four PDP courses that are offered for first-, second-, and third-year EEE students. It explores how these courses, designed similarly but offered in different semesters, enhanced EEE students' soft skills and their understanding of course concepts. A questionnaire was administered to sixty-one students after four semesters of teaching. Data triangulation utilized journals, interviews, and reflections. Data showed increased motivation, improved interpersonal skills, and enhanced confidence in self-expression among students. Despite the collaborative effort and time required from instructors, these courses seem to provide valuable opportunities for students to enhance their competence and success in future careers.

This study investigates the innovative work behavior (IWB) of marine lecturers, considering work motivation (WM), organizational culture (OC), and soft skill competence (SSC). Data from 145 respondents representing ten higher education polytechnics in Indonesia were analyzed using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Respondents answered 54 Likert-scale questions, revealing that SSC significantly shapes IWB (estimated value: 0.504), primarily through problem-solving ability. However, WM showed no significant impact on IWB, possibly due to non-influential dimensions like science, technology, environment, and society. Incorporating technological developments as moderating variables could enhance this relationship. Notably, SSC and OC exhibit crucial relationships with IWB, highlighting their importance over WM. These findings shed light on the complex dynamics influencing IWB among marine lecturers, emphasizing the significance of SSC and OC in fostering innovation in the maritime education sector.

Although the professional culture of designers has been emphasized as a peripheral issue in various fields of study in design, such as design culture and design management, it has rarely been the central topic of research. However, studies from other professional fields have demonstrated the significance of studying professional culture, especially its formation in higher educational contexts, as it has direct implications on professional status and career prospects of these professions' members. This paper aims to redress this gap by exploring how the professional culture acquired in industrial design education shapes industrial designers' work experiences in manufacturing companies? It focuses on the context of Turkey and empirically draws on interviews with industrial designers who have work experience in large-scale manufacturing companies. Interviews reveal insights into industrial designers' perceptions of the profession, experiences in undergraduate education, adaptations to professional life, and professional experiences in manufacturing companies where they collaborate with other professions, where cultural disconnect becomes visible. The qualitative data analysis highlighted the significance of being a community and having flexibility in space and time in industrial design's professional culture in the examined context. The findings underline collaboration and teaching of soft skills such as communication and teamwork as implications for industrial design education.

This study aimed at investigating the undergraduates' soft skills in a private HE institute in Lebanon from various perspectives. The study adopted a mixed-method approach for collecting and analyzing the data. Two different surveys, compiling major features of incorporating soft skills into USAL's study programs, were administered. 108 undergraduates and 23 instructors from different majors competed the surveys. A focus group interview was conducted for student affairs office personnel (SAO) to examine its role in developing undergraduates' soft skills. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 while qualitative data were classified into themes and analyzed against the quantitative data and USAL's policy and regulations. Findings indicate, from a triangulated perspective, that USAL's undergraduates have revealed an average level of soft skills although they admit their significant importance for employability and career advancement. In addition, USAL's role in developing undergraduates' soft skills appears satisfactory with respect to the curriculum, the instructors' responsibilities and conducts, and SAO liabilities. Challenges impeding the process of integrating soft skills are pinpointed and discussed. Recommendations for the betterment of investing soft skills within USAL' context, policy and practice, are shared.

Upon graduating, students are expected to have acquired soft skills to meet potential employers' expectations. Since employers today are competing for qualified graduates possessing relevant training and workplace competencies, ELT teachers should guide their learners towards obtaining both a comprehensive understanding of theoretical concepts and a range of interpersonal abilities. This study examined whether Thai teachers incorporate these soft skills in the classroom, which soft skill elements are prioritized and taught, and how the teachers implemented these elements in their EFL classrooms. Twenty ELT teachers from Rajamangala University of Technology in Thailand participated in an online survey and semi-structured interviews. Data was collected using a 4-point Likert-scale questionnaire, which revealed that the teachers reported that they integrated soft skills into the classroom, primarily in the domains of learning skills, literacy skills, and life skills. The three soft skills reported to be most utilized were communication skills, technology literacy, and collaboration and teamwork, which are all essential for improving English language proficiency. The findings suggest that ELT teachers identify and facilitate the acquisition of weaker supplementary skills, such as leadership, to equip students with the necessary skills to succeed.

This paper analyses the relation between generic competencies of students of Psychology and their academic performance and employability. A sample of 43 students of Psychology in a Spanish university was used to measure their generic competencies, academic performance and employability. Correlational and regression tests were conducted to evaluate the relation between the variables. The generic competence 'adhering to principles and values' is positively related to employability, while the competencies 'achieve results/client satisfaction' and 'socialise and create networks' are positively related to academic performance. No significant relationship was found between academic performance and employability. Generic competencies favour both academic performance and employability. The competencies which influence only one of these aspects are different. Our research offers insights to teacher learning communities to engage in a profound reflection on the inclusion of methodologies that facilitate the development of competencies related to academic performance and those most in demand in the labour market within the field of Psychology. Generic competencies are essential part of the education of students of Psychology. These competencies are institutionally developed with the aim of orienting the education of psychologists towards their future professional practice. It is essential to understand how the development of generic competencies may facilitate academic performance and employability of graduates in Psychology.

This study investigated the degree of practicing soft skills by science teachers using the descriptive approach. To achieve the study's objective, an observation card was developed. It was used to monitor three lessons for each subject (n=60) science teachers, who were distributed into six groups according to work experience and educational qualification, in the Directorate of Education of Bani Kinanah District in Irbid Governorate. The results showed that science teachers practice soft skills such as communication, problem-solving, negotiation, planning and time management, teamwork, leadership, and critical thinking to a high degree, with an explained variance (9.13%), on all dimensions of the observation card. However, the results also indicated statistically significant differences ([alpha] = 0.05) between the arithmetic means of the teaching practices of soft skills among science teachers resulting from the different levels of educational qualification and teaching experience. Thus, teachers with educational qualifications typically practice soft skills to a greater extent with an average level of (14.48%) than their peers without educational degrees. Teachers with advanced experience are more likely to exercise soft skills with an average level of (11.73%) than their counterparts with medium and simple experience. Therefore, the study recommended including soft skills practice as a university course, endorsing it in universities, and continuous training for science teachers on teaching practices for soft skills through training courses and workshops.

The purpose of the study is to examine how Industry 4.0, and the digital environment, have together created a new situation for companies and universities in terms of soft skills for employability. While companies aim to introduce a new structure, universities try to align with these changes by developing new educational methods, curricula, and models. Many researches are focusing on -- rightfully so -- Industry 4.0 skills and competences to gain throughout higher education. However, we have shifted our research interest and asked students to what degree their university years added to their knowledge, self-management and skills. 147 engineering and technical manager students' responses from two faculties at Óbuda University, Hungary were analyzed to see their evaluations of the role of the university in the framework of Education 4.0, and their chances in the job market. Quantitative and CHAID analyses were used. Students' responses show significant differences between the two faculties regarding languages, teamwork, self-management and in the different order of the skills seen as most paramount to employability. Engineering students attach greater importance to field-relevant knowledge, while technical manager students find decision-making more useful. The research proved that Education 4.0 is here and Z generation studying at universities prefers problem-based learning, including creativity, analytical, and critical thinking while would like to have good communication skills. Universities need to adapt to these changes and integrate hard as well as soft skills development in tutoring. The importance of technical-IT knowledge is just as important as having interpersonal skills, excellence in problem-solving, so students need to be taught how to analyze problems, engage in scientific debate, or express themselves clearly as previous literature indicated.

Critical thinking, creativity, communication, teamwork, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, empathy, resilience, ambition, grit, and innovation (Heckman & Kautz, 2012). These skills, often referred to as 'soft' skills, are considered a requirement for employment and advancement for the 21st-century graduate (Carnevale & Smith, 2013). Within a Western Canadian School of Business, in an environment highly regarded for technical skill achievement in diploma and degree graduates, faculty set out to investigate the absence or inclusion of human skills in curriculum outcomes as an initial phase of investigation. There is an institutional presumption that human skill development is innately a part of the programs. The intention is that human skills (LeBusque, 2020) or power skills (PMI, 2022) naturally occur during course delivery, creating a commonality across foundational courses to reinforce the skill sets identified, developed, and refined as students complete their credentials. However, industry reports (Lapointe & Turner, 2020; RBC, 2019) and the authors' own institutional data collected from new graduates and employers indicated room for improvement in these skills. To gain a better understanding, the authors undertook an examination via document analysis of all common core courses that form the program foundation. Through the lens of dynamic skill theory (Mascolo, 2020), this evaluation involved 24 common courses, comprised of 1,442 course objectives, resulting in a range of 134 Bloom's Taxonomy verbs. In this paper, the authors begin the exploratory first phase of a broader comprehensive study with a focus on course foundations for learner development. Through this analysis, the authors present a draft framework to better understand and strengthen the learning foundations, to proceed with considerations for realignment and strategic scaffolding of both technical and human skills from entry through graduation.

Cybersecurity has become increasingly important not only in the technology sector but in criminal justice professions as well, and significant challenges have arisen as a result. However, these challenges are not well discussed in the literature. To address this gap, and to study the cybersecurity trends impacting criminal justice professionals and the skills, knowledge and abilities criminal justice students need to succeed upon graduation, this research focuses on the role cybersecurity plays in the jobs that compose the main components of the criminal justice system and adjacent areas: law enforcement, the judicial process, corrections, social work, and military. This research utilizes semi-structured interviews with current and recently retired practitioners. Findings from this study revealed eight broad themes, many of which are complementary including changing technologies, generational gaps, over reliance on information technology professionals, and best practices for education composed of experiential learning, soft skills, specialized curriculum and interdisciplinary approaches.

Background: "Psychological literacy" is a set of attributes, which refer broadly to how students apply their subject-specific psychology knowledge to solving problems. However, the extent to which psychological literacy skills are "unique" to psychology as a discipline is unknown. Objective: We assessed whether students perceive psychological literacy attributes to be prominent in disciplines outside of psychology. Method: We recruited undergraduate students from Psychology, non-Psychology STEM subjects, and Humanities subjects (N= 296) and asked them to identify the extent to which they perceive psychological literacy attributes to be prominent in their degrees. Results: Psychology students reported significantly higher perceived prominence of psychological literacy attributes in their degree, compared with Humanities and non-Psychology STEM students, in all but two of the psychological literacy attributes. Conclusion: These findings suggest that psychological literacy mostly represents attributes unique to psychology students, but some of these attributes are also developed within other disciplines. The facets of psychological literacy unique to psychology relate to knowledge of behavior, research skills, ethics, and socio-cultural issues. Teaching implications: This suggests that psychology students graduate with some subject specific attributes, which may make them uniquely advantaged in a competitive work context and affirms that psychology degrees do hold unique value.

This scoping review paper explores skills gaps for graduates in creative industries as identified and discussed in global industrial and education contexts. Adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) system, our review presents findings from 63 texts published from 2007 to 2023 that were located via five databases. These findings suggest that the top-ranked hard skills gaps for graduates are digital or related skills, such as those related to marketing and data analysis. The top-ranked soft skills are communication and collaboration, both of which are cited more frequently than any hard skill gap and appear key for graduate employability. Factors identified as contributing to these skills gaps include higher education offerings, industry needs and cultural policy. These contributing factors are correlated to the rise of creative industries, shifting values in cultural sectors, change in governments in western influenced cultures and digital transformation.

Internationalization in higher education is essential, and although active learning methodologies are increasing and allow students to develop transversal skills, most still have a very local scope. In this context, the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) methodology is an interesting approach to benefit the students' development. It consists of an online program that involves creating multicultural teams to develop a specific learning project. Although this methodology is expanding, its use in physiology is still scarce. This paper aims to show an example of applying COIL methodology in physiology topics to enhance higher-education students' innovation and business skills. Our example project developed a sports-assessment service concept focused on physiology and biomechanics assessments. The program involved teams from Brazil, Germany, and Spain, comprising undergraduate and master students. Over 7 weeks, these teams, mentored by professors and researchers, engaged in workshops covering COIL methodology, business model design, executive summary planning, economic analyses, and communication techniques. Key outcomes included learning new concepts, developing soft skills, building confidence in innovative solution proposals, and experiencing diverse cultures. Challenges faced were language barriers, scheduling, task complexity, and logistical issues. This experience confirms the effectiveness of incorporating programs using COIL methodology into educational curriculums. Doing so exposes physiology students to innovation, entrepreneurship, and business creation while strengthening their professional connections and opening up postgraduation opportunities.

It's crucial to boost future educational psychologists' readiness in project-based competencies, as current training often neglects psychological resources, highlighting the need for enhanced project support in Pedagogy and Psychology education. The paper aims to enhance understanding of psychologist professional development by specifying the concept of "readiness for professional activity design," defined as the integration and interaction of personality structures and educational environment conditions. The study utilized systematic, structural, functional, and comparative analysis, expert assessments, questionnaires, socio-pedagogical modeling, pedagogical design, education quality diagnostics, and statistical methods for comprehensive research. The paper provides a theoretical and methodological analysis of future educational psychologists' readiness to design professional activities in the context of a comprehensive study, including a survey of graduate students of the specialisation "Pedagogy and Psychology" of universities of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as an expert assessment that allows objectively assessing the psychological potential of psychologists-graduates, predict the features of their project work in the educational environment. It emphasizes the importance of the personal component in professional readiness and offers an expert assessment of training effectiveness for educational psychologists in designing activities within educational environments.

This essay analyses the implementation of a work-based learning policy in upper secondary schools in Italy. The policy aims to improve student orientation and enhance their soft skills. Based on two ethnographic research studies in Italy, this essay utilises Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework, particularly the 'field' concept, to examine how this policy has been implemented in different tracks of the Italian school system in a peripheral region. The policy has challenged the autonomy of the scholastic field, primarily advocated by teachers and students in the dominant pole, represented by the classical and scientific lyceums. The policy has been translated into a series of projects in museums, libraries and third-sector associations in this field segment. These initiatives reinforce students' citizenship values while highlighting their detachment from manual work. In the dominated pole of the field, represented by vocational schools primarily located in the suburbs of large cities and rural areas, the policy has been well received as it aligns with the expectations of teachers and students. However, due to the prevalence of small family companies, planning truly formative work-based learning experiences becomes challenging. Consequently, this leads to an early, albeit tense, socialisation of students within the hierarchical order of small companies.

This paper explores the skills that Hong Kong employers and graduates see as important to have in the workplace as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our data are interviews with 40 employers and 69 graduates in the territory. Using reflexive thematic analysis, our qualitative findings center around four themes. First, we highlight the necessity for graduates to have hard and soft skills when entering Hong Kong workplaces. Second, we reveal the disjuncture that exists regarding the skills that graduates acquire at university and those expected in prospective workplaces. Third, we outline the perceived strength in hard skills possessed by graduates. Fourth, we elucidate the perceived deficit in graduates' soft skills upon entering the workplace. We discuss the implications of our findings not just for understanding the workplace during the pandemic, but also in post-COVID-19 workplaces.

Considering the evolving and unpredictable job market, adaptability is an important skill for young adults. Such adaptability implies that schools need to teach key social competences, like communication, collaboration, or problem-solving. In this area, a gender gap has consistently been found, showing that boys display social competences less than girls. A large-scale nationwide multilab longitudinal experiment--the ProFAN project--was conducted in France among more than 10,000 vocational high-school students. Its primary goal was to develop and test an intervention promoting a range of psychological and psychosocial variables in vocational high schools, including social competences. This 2-year long, three-wave field experiment compared the effects of a cooperative learning method--the jigsaw classroom, that entails positive goal and resource interdependence--to two control conditions: one that involves cooperation with resource independence, and the other that remains business-as-usual. This article focuses on the differential development of perceived social competences of adolescent boys and girls over time, comparing the three pedagogical methods. Results of longitudinal multilevel modeling replicate the gender gap in perceived social competences and show that this gap widens with time. However, and most importantly, the analyses revealed that such widening of the gender gap was greater in the two control conditions than in the jigsaw condition, in which the evolution of boys' and girls' perceptions of social competences remained similar over time. Contributions to the understanding of the development and teaching of social competences in education settings are discussed.

The rapid growth of technology and computer science, which has led to a surge in demand for skilled professionals in this field. The skill set required for computer science jobs has evolved rapidly, creating challenges for those already in the workforce who need to adapt their skills quickly to meet industry demands. To stay ahead of the curve, it is essential to understand the hottest skills needed in the field. The article introduces a new method for analyzing job advertisements using social network analysis to identify the most critical skills required by employers in the market. In this research, to form the communication network of skills, first 5763 skills were collected from the LinkedIn social network, then the relationship between skills was collected and searched in 7777 computer science job advertisements, and finally, the balanced communication network of skills was formed. The study analyzes the formed communication network of skills in the computer science job market and identifies four distinct communities of skills: Generalists, Infrastructure and Security, Software Development, and Embedded Systems. The findings reveal that employers value both hard and soft skills, such as programming languages and teamwork. Communication skills were found to be the most important skill in the labor market. Additionally, certain skills were highlighted based on their centrality indices, including communication, English, SQL, Git, and business skills, among others. The study provides valuable insights into the current state of the computer science job market and can help guide individuals and organizations in making informed decisions about skills acquisition and hiring practices.

Background: Developing teamwork skills is a central objective of engineering education. Psychological safety and conflict management are pivotal components of teamwork, yet despite their significance, research in engineering project-based learning (PBL) contexts is scant. Understanding students' experiences with psychological safety and its interaction with conflict is crucial to inform PBL pedagogy. Purpose: This study delves into first-year engineering students' experiences of psychological safety and conflict, including their evolution in a PBL course. Methods: Throughout the semester, we collected data from 82 students via written reflections and focus groups. Employing a thematic analysis underpinned by the team conflict dynamics model, we characterized students' experiences with psychological safety and conflict. Findings: At the semester's outset, psychological safety was notably lacking. Students often hesitated to share ideas due to apprehensions about peer reactions and fears of negative judgments. As the semester advanced, consistent positive affirmations nurtured psychological safety, increasing students' confidence and readiness to discuss ideas openly and engage in healthy task conflict. Notably, process conflicts arising from absenteeism, poor communication, and procrastination were prevalent across teams. When unresolved, these conflicts eroded psychological safety, intensifying stress, exacerbating frustrations, and provoking relationship conflict. Conclusions: Our study underscores the intertwined nature of psychological safety and conflict in shaping the first-year design experience in student teams. We urge faculty to recognize their pivotal role in fostering an inclusive culture and highlight pedagogical strategies that can bolster psychological safety at the onset, encourage healthy task conflict, and monitor unhealthy process and relationship conflicts.

This research aims to present a Fuzzy Expert System with psychologist expertise that seeks to assist professors, researchers and educational institutions in assessing the level of incorporation of students' Soft Skills while attending Active Learning sessions. The difficulties encountered by higher education institutions, researchers and professors in evaluating subjective and behavioral components, such as Soft Skills, was one of the problems that motivated the undertaking of this research. The theoretical framework on which this work is based includes the development and evaluation of Soft Skills in students, some concepts and characteristics about Active Learning and the main attributes and properties of Fuzzy Logic. This research is of an exploratory applied nature, a qualitative and quantitative approach is proposed, in which the methodological triangulation between the bibliographic analysis, the case study and the modeling and implementation of the expert system called Fuzzy Soft Skills Assessment was used to achieve the objective proposed.

Due to their soft and hard skills, retirees in any field of study, including the arts, humanities, social, natural and biomedical sciences, mathematics and engineering, carry a wealth of experience, both personal and professional, could continue to be of benefit to students and early career researchers, even after they have retired. Their educational background and experience could enrich the education knowledge stream if their input, expertise and skills could be tapped after retirement, provided that they are physically and/or mentally healthy, able to communicate their ideas in a clear, lucid, and constructive way, and have accompanied support. Perspectives are offered about how retirees could benefit the research and education knowledge stream across disciplines in schools and institutes of higher education, such as universities.

Many experts project generative AI will impact the types of competencies that are valued among working professionals. This is the first known academic study to explore the views of business practitioners about the impacts of generative AI on skill sets. This survey of 692 business practitioners showed that business practitioners widely use generative AI, with the most common uses involving research and ideation, drafting of business messages and reports, and summarizing and revising text. Business practitioners report that character-based traits such as integrity and soft skills will become more important. Implications for teaching business communication are discussed.

Previous research has identified "UPGRADE Your Performance" as a method for teaching employment soft skills to students with disabilities. "UPGRADE Your Performance" instruction is a multicomponent intervention including self-evaluation, self-graphing, goal setting, and technology-aided instruction. This pilot study investigated the generalized effects of "UPGRADE Your Performance" on soft skills of secondary students with intellectual and other developmental disabilities participating in an 18-21 transition program located on a university campus. Results indicated that when students improved in two targeted soft skill areas, generalization occurred to three non-targeted soft skill areas. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are included.

The agricultural industry lacks qualified workers, suggesting students may not participate in opportunities that effectively develop their employability skills. We used a phenomenological case study approach to investigate Texas A&M University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students' career-readiness and factors influencing career-readiness. We conducted interviews with 19 juniors and seniors. Open coding procedures revealed five emergent themes--"Career Advice-Seeking Behavior," "Employability Skills Development," "Network Establishment," "Relevant Experiences," and "Personal Growth." Findings indicate that students do not take advantage of University resources to help them with career preparation. Findings also revealed a lack of employability skills development, especially relating to students' communication and science communication skills. Students identified high-impact experiences they believed improved their employability skills. We recommend strategies for educators to improve agriculture students' career-readiness and offer research recommendations to examine career-readiness factors that may help prepare students to meet 21st century agricultural workforce demands.

Faculty encourage students to participate in internships to gain major-specific knowledge and make contacts in their field. Internships are becoming more popular with students over the past 5 years, with an uptick in the number of students who participate in this kind of experiential learning. While students do learn technical training in an internship they also have the ability to experience, practice and hone soft skills. Soft skills are skills such as communication, teamwork, leadership, and problem solving. These skills are the skills employers are seeking above and beyond technical skills. When the goal in internships becomes not only helping students focus on their intended field of study, but also learning the soft skills requested by employers, the internships benefit students in a multitude of ways. The question becomes how does the academic environment structure an internship to ascertain that students are learning the soft skills as well as the technical skills needed to succeed? This paper focuses on internships and their benefits to students in both a technical and soft skill aspect as well as assignments and measuring tools used in internship classes to instill and assess the internship.

The study investigates the impact of three aspects of the residential summer enrichment program (RSEP) on gifted students' decision to recommend the program to friends. The research was conducted at a public university in Saudi Arabia, with 356 gifted students from grades nine to 11. The study used Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling to examine the causal connections between these factors and students' intention to advocate for the RSEP. The findings show that students' satisfaction with logistics arrangement, soft-skills program, and science program significantly influences their intention to promote the program. The logistics arrangement had the highest unique contribution to this intention, followed by soft skills and science programs. The study suggests that RSEP can enhance motivation, participation, program quality, and provide valuable input for decision-makers in Saudi Arabia. Enrichment programs should prioritize creating a secure learning environment while considering individual well-being and growth.

Teaching soft skills like team dynamics and critical thinking in content-heavy higher education curriculum can be challenging. Employing educational escape rooms is a novel game-based learning strategy in various disciplines, including health sciences. Escape rooms provide the opportunity for a group to work together as they solve puzzles within a limited time. The skills harnessed and developed within the game by participants are parallel to these soft skills. The present study sought to design a neuroscience-themed physical escape room for the purpose of soft skills development and obtain feedback from undergraduate biomedical or health science students following the completion of the room. Likert-type scale statements in the feedback survey regarding the enjoyability, teamwork development and critical thinking within the game scored positively. Unsurprisingly, the recurring positive theme in the qualitative responses collected revolved around how participants found the activity fun and how it encouraged them to think critically. The present findings suggest that this escape room can in a brief period encourage students to employ communication and teamwork skills and naturally comes with an element of fun, making the experience memorable and engaging.

Interdisciplinary collaboration is critical to address the multiple and varied needs of students with social/emotional and behavioral (SEB) challenges. Yet little is known about the nature of collaboration between two specialist groups who commonly support them: behavior analysts and mental health specialists. Considering expectations for collaboration, and the potential challenges unique to this partnership, we conducted a series of interviews in the U.S. state of Tennessee to explore these specialists' experiences and perspectives around collaboration. We used a qualitative description approach, which led to identifying themes related to (a) specialists' preparation to collaborate, (b) facilitators and barriers to effective collaboration, and (c) supports needed to collaborate more effectively in their current roles. Specialists from both groups felt their pre-service training inadequately prepared them to collaborate with one another. They identified several factors that impacted their ability to meaningfully collaborate and expressed needs for cross-discipline education, collaborative conversations, and training on "soft skills" to partner more effectively. We highlight distinct and overlapping perspectives within and across themes between behavior analysts and mental health specialists and discuss implications for improving the quality of these important partnerships.

Since there are many advantages of servant leadership, such as altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping, and organizational stewardship, employers and human resources are particularly concerned about these soft skills when recruiting graduates. This study explores the impact of undergraduates' servant leadership on their self-perception of employability. We utilized previously validated scale questionnaires (the Servant Leadership Scale and the Undergraduates Perceived Employability Scale) to predict the perceived employability of undergraduates. We used multiple linear regression analysis to examine the five subscales of undergraduate servant leadership. Our extensive research has uncovered substantial evidence supporting all five hypotheses presented in the paper. Five variables, derived from the five dimensions of servant leadership, were used to measure undergraduates' perceived employability as the dependent variable. Our findings confirm that the altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping, and organizational stewardship dimensions of servant leadership have positive correlations with undergraduates' perceived employability. Our findings suggest that undergraduates may be more employable if they exhibit the characteristics of servant leadership. Undergraduates should therefore be encouraged to enhance their soft skills in relation to servant leadership, and universities should consider offering courses on the topic. Employers and HR professionals may want to provide training to new employees on servant leadership to align better with the company culture. This study is the first to predict how undergraduate students' servant leadership qualities affect their perceived employability. The findings indicate that undergraduates who exhibit servant leadership traits are more likely to have a positive perception of their employability.

A mismatch remains between the skills employers seek in new hires and the skills applicants possess. This study encompassed an evaluation of the impacts of the Quality Enhancement Program on students' work readiness competencies, including oral, written, and digital communication skills, at Nunez Community College. The Quality Enhancement Program initiative involved embedding Conover Workplace Readiness® online training modules into English and communication courses to enhance professional skills. A non-experimental pre-post evaluation was used to investigate whether students' oral, written, and digital communication skills were improved after participation in the Quality Enhancement Program coursework. Data were analyzed using: (a) pre- and post-implementation grades; (b) rubric scores; (c) student survey scores; and (d) faculty survey scores. The evidence showed significant improvement in students' oral, written, and digital communication skills after participation in Quality Enhancement Program courses, workshops, and modules, resulting in improved employability skills. Whereas students expressed confidence in their improved communication skills, teachers were more cautious about the extent of the gains. Although localized, this study has implications for addressing community college students' work readiness globally, given worldwide skills gap concerns.

Peer mentoring is a widely employed strategy in higher education to foster student development and integration. However, the effectiveness of peer mentoring in higher education lacks well-established statements. A systematic review was conducted to assess the efficacy of peer mentoring during the initial phase of academic studies. This review evaluated effectiveness based on four outcomes: intention to drop out, the sense of belonging, academic and social integration. It also scrutinised gender disparities and distinctions between digital and non-digital, and group-based and individual peer mentoring. The review revealed that peer mentoring is an effective support mechanism, yielding favourable impacts across various outcomes: social and academic integration, career benefits, emotional benefits, soft skills, university-life balance, study dropout intention and sense of belonging to university. Gender disparities were generally inconspicuous in most studies. Digital peer mentoring proved effective, though students reported reduced levels of social support compared to non-digital peer-mentoring. Both individual and group-based peer mentoring programmes were utilised, but specific outcomes distinguishing the two formats were not discerned. In summary, peer mentoring proves to be a valuable resource for first-year students, particularly concerning academic and social integration. To holistically address the diverse needs of first-year students additional approaches may be considered.

In recent years, the South African basic and higher education departments have been besieged by egregious forms of violence. Although this has been a worrisome phenomenon dating back to time immemorial, of late, violence is at a very concerning and alarming level. The profusion of violence serves as an indictment to various stakeholders including the sitting government, which seems to have done very little, if not nothing, to mitigate the issue. Several media houses and numerous media platforms have, on a daily basis, tracked bullying which has advanced to the gruesome murder of learners and teachers alike. Very often, societies wake up to new and traumatising experiences that have since endorsed schools and higher education institutions as war zones where bloodbaths have become commonplace. This article drew its data from extensive reviews of news items, scholarly articles, and social media news. The study sought to highlight how much violence has ravaged schools, colleges, and universities. After tracing different versions of violence experienced in the aforementioned institutions, the study established that institutions had experienced a deluge of violent incidents. Several institutions have lost educators, principals, ancillary staff, and students through violent death. The study further suggested ways through which violence may be mitigated in the institutions. Active stakeholder involvement, re-skilling of teachers in handling 21st-century learners/students and introduction of modules on teachers' soft skills in dealing with recalcitrant learners are some of the recommendations that resulted from the findings of this study.

A rise in attention to and assistance for human trafficking (HT) victims and survivors has resulted in a call to action for occupational therapists and other healthcare professionals. Victims and survivors often seek healthcare services in a variety of settings, yet ill-equipped healthcare professionals lacking training and self-efficacy with this population have left many unidentified needs unaddressed. Occupational therapists possess the skills necessary to support and assist survivors of HT in their reintegration and healing processes. However, little to no specific training for practitioners in this field has been developed. This study explored how an educational panel of OTs and HT experts who have worked with occupational therapists impacted occupational therapists' knowledge and perceived self-efficacy regarding HT and its intersection with occupational therapy. A 1.5-hour interactive panel was assembled and prepared for a synchronous Zoom meeting by the researchers. Eighty students completed both pre- and post-surveys. Post-panel surveys revealed that students' knowledge of the intersection between HT and occupational therapy improved, their perceived self-efficacy in assisting victims and survivors of HT increased, and their perspective on the panel format and content was favorable. The survey findings also indicated students' desire for continued professional education and occupational therapy practice skills focused on the topic of HT. One way to address the gaps in the knowledge and self-efficacy of healthcare providers is to equip them with knowledge and skills on treating HT victims through training during their didactic curriculum and in clinical practice.

This study investigated the impact of work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) lecturers on their industry expertise and teaching skills. WIL was introduced to address the inadequate work experience of TVET lecturers and improve their capacity to deliver quality teaching. The study used face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 18 TVET lecturers to explore their WIL experiences. Non-participant observation was also conducted to validate findings from interviews. Kolb's experiential learning theory, Shulman's Teaching framework and the soft skills theory by Ibrahim et al. underpinned the study. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The study showed that WIL enhanced lecturers' ability to integrate theory with practice and provide effective teaching. Lecturers acquired a deep understanding of pedagogical content knowledge, soft skills, and awareness of workplace culture. Future studies focusing on a variety of trades for lecturers are recommended.

Annually, thousands of post-secondary students studying accounting in Canada participate in the Chartered Professional Accountant Recruitment (CPA Recruit) process to secure employment with accounting firms. Despite the competitive process, there has been negligible research studying how students secure these coveted positions. This qualitative research study explored the lived experience of ten students throughout the recruitment process, identifying 119 success strategies. Fink's taxonomy of significant learning, a conceptualized model that focuses on high quality teaching and learning, was used to categorize the strategies. Findings revealed that while having foundational discipline-specific knowledge was important, intra- and interpersonal skills were deemed more important in helping participants effectively apply and integrate their learning, ultimately demonstrating their ability to transfer learning between contexts. Implications and recommendations are discussed for academic programs to enhance curricular and co-curricular components for students to strengthen and transfer soft skills, and for organizations and professional bodies to improve recruitment practices.

The paper presents an evaluation of History and Korean Studies WIL internships at Monash University Library, focusing on past students' views of the program in relation to their future career, and past host-supervisors' perceptions of its benefits. Data collection for the qualitative research was conducted through semi-structured interviews with past students and host-supervisors. The results revealed that both past students and host-supervisors expected the internships to facilitate students to gain hands-on experiences and develop 'soft-skills.' There was a gap where past host-supervisors consistently mentioned teamwork in their expectations, yet none of the past students had teamwork as one of their expectations. Both past students and host-supervisors view the program as beneficial for students, therefore, they suggested that the programs continue to be offered. Upon being asked what the benefits of internships were for themselves however, the host-supervisors put forward benefits that were more related to the library.

Students with academic performance and soft skills should be concerned with the learning process because it is a learning achievement. This research aims to find the factors affecting academic performance and soft skills. In this pandemic, learning is done online, so interaction between students and lecturers becomes limited. The quantitative data are collected by distributing the questionnaires. The population of this study is 2nd-semester students of the Faculty of Economics, "Universitas Negeri Semarang" (UNNES), who use online learning from the beginning of the lecture. The population were 900 students, with a sample of 276 students. Data were tabulated and analyzed using SEM-PLS. The results showed that cognitive presence, teaching presence, and social presence positively and significantly (57.9%) affect students' academic performance, and 49.1% affect students' soft skills. The order of factors that most affect academic performance is teaching presence (41.4%), social presence (31.1%), and cognitive presence (11.7%) whereas the order of factors that most affect soft skills is social presence (48.9%), cognitive presence (11.7%), and teaching presence (11.1%). It means that the Community of Inquiry (CoI) theory can explain the magnitude of the factors on academic performance and soft skills in the good category. It is suggested that the related parties to support students to achieve better academic performance and soft skills.

This study aims at exploring the prospects and practices of induction for novice teachers. The phenomenological research design under qualitative research approach was adopted to carry out this study. The sample of this study was 5 teacher educators and 5 educational administrators who were selected through convenience non-random sampling procedure. They were selected on the basis of their willingness, expertise, experiences, and availability for this study. In-depth interview was administered to the respondents as a tool to collect for this study. The findings of this study show that implementation of induction program helps the novice teachers to reduce attrition, burnout and leaving the job of teaching; they learn employability skills and soft skills during the induction program; they can embed information communication technology with English language teaching in the classroom in this program; and quality of education could be enhanced through the induction program. It is concluded that induction program is essential for the prosperity and professional development of newly appointed novice teachers.

There is a need for improved skills development within the UK's Higher Education Institutions (HEI) stemming from the disconnect between the expectations of employers of the skills graduates have and the skills graduates have gained during their degree. It is well-known now that there is a clear skills gap. The present study aims to explore the effect of graduates and students' perception of skills development in HEI in the UK. A total of 420 participants completed an online survey to explore their perception as well as their confidence of skills development by rating each skill on a Likert scale. The paper discusses the results in light of pedagogical strategies developed to teach soft skills in HE. The paper concludes with recommendations for teaching practice.

Soft skills enable the individual to successfully face the problems and challenges of a complex society in flux and under constant uncertainty. Music, in its different forms of expression, is here introduced as an ideal tool for the development of intrapersonal and action skills such as adaptability, optimism and proactivity. In this paper we analyse a case study regarding a project carried out by and for future teachers. Our data collection methods included questionnaires, observations, student productions and interviews. The results reveal that music can be a mediating element for the development of soft skills. Specifically, it has been observed that music can help the individual to face and effectively resolve changing and novel situations that require self-efficacy, self-confidence and social support. Music can also improve the physical and socio-emotional well-being of individuals as well as helping them successfully face adversity.

The diversity of topics in education makes it difficult for artificial intelligence (AI) to address them all in depth. Therefore, guiding to focus efforts on specific issues is essential. The analysis of competency development by fostering collaboration should be one of them because competencies are the way to validate that the educational exercise has been successful and because collaboration has proven to be one of the most effective strategies to improve performance outcomes. This systematic review analyzes the relationship between AI, competency development, and collaborative learning (CL). PRISMA methodology is used with data from the SCOPUS database. A total of 1,233 articles were found, and 30 passed the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The analysis of the selected articles identified three categories that deserve attention: the objects of study, the way of analyzing the results, and the types of AI that could be used. In this way, it has been possible to determine the relationship offered by the studies between skill development and CL and ideas about AI's contributions to this field. Overall, however, the data from this systematic review suggest that, although AI has great potential to improve education, it should be approached with caution. More research is needed to fully understand its impact and how best to apply this technology in the classroom, minimizing its drawbacks, which may be relevant, and making truly effective and productive use of it.

Students, teachers, and educational researchers divide into typical or exceptional populations. This includes different classes, credentials, and research journals that depend on the student's ability level. This distinction creates two concurrent yet separate bodies of educational research. Students with disabilities are increasingly included in general education classes yet research continues to separate the populations. In areas of research that influence typical and exceptional students such as noncognitive skills, each field has developed varied terms and definitions. As researchers focus on the importance of noncognitive skills, it is important to develop an educational community with a shared lexicon between researchers looking at typical and exceptional populations. The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCCSR) published a report in 2012 entitled "Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners. The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance: A Critical Literature Review" in which they drew together research from fields such as psychology, economics, and education to present noncognitive factors as a malleable means to improve student performance in school. The CCCSR report established a conceptual framework and terminology to further the study of noncognitive skills. According to the framework derived by CCCSR, noncognitive factors include academic mindsets, academic perseverance, academic behaviors, learning strategies, and social skills, which interact to influence academic performance (Allensworth et al., 2012, p. 12). The purpose of this article is to examine the terms used to define noncognitive factors in research with typical and exceptional students in an attempt to bring the diverse vocabulary together through the lens of the CCCSR framework.