Abstract:

A modern specialist of post-industrial society should have a portfolio of as hard skills competencies as soft skills, noting that the role of the latter skills is often underestimated by students, because they do not fully realize subject content of soft skills and they impact on employability and personal development.

In order to clarify the current students’ understanding of soft skills and the purposeful development of these ideas, the authors conducted a research, which was participated by 127 students of Moscow universities (73 first-year full-time students and 54 fourth-year full-time students). These groups of students passed the Pretest questionnaire.

The research of students’ understanding of the soft skills role included the following stages: at the first stage all participants filled in the questionnaires aimed at revealing their understanding of the soft skills phenomenon; at the second stage the participants held training sessions on the development of soft skills competencies. Each training was accompanied by a standardized interview. At the third stage, the final questionnaire was implemented, designed to record the presence or absence of shifts in understanding the phenomenon of soft skills. The obtained results allowed to record the lack of or weak understanding of this phenomenon before the study, and a steady increase of interest in the phenomenon during the process of research as the recognition of its importance at the end of the research, accompanied by a desire to actively develop soft skills in the process of educational interaction. The fourth-year students fixed a great interest in the development of soft skills. According to the general opinion of the research participants, the incorporation of classes aimed at the development of soft skills in the training practice will make it significantly more effective.

The limitation of this study is the involvement of only first-year and fourth-year full-time students and a limited research period (1 academic year). The results of the research are recommended for use in order to optimize the educational process at the Universities.

Keywords:

Soft skill, employability, educational interaction, undergraduate students, personal development.