How Education can help UK’s Soft Skills Crisis

The UK may be suffering from a soft skills crisis which could threaten business productivity, a recent study by Instructure has found.

The findings were made by edtech company Instructure whose report,Instructure Skills Study: preparing for the 2030 workplace, showed that 68% of secondary school teachers and 64% of SME’s do not believe that students currently have the soft skills they need to prepare them for the workplace. 

Research suggests that the most in demand skills for today’s employers are problem-solving, collaboration and teamwork.

However, many believe that ‘soft skills aren’t getting enough focus’ suggesting changes should be made within the current education system to fill this skills gap.

As reported in Global Education Times, the Instructure report concluded that it was sometimes suggested that soft skills are not valued in the workplace.

Employers in UK want to see soft skills as well as hard skills

In order to close the skills gap, a balance should be found between the teaching of hard and soft skills.

More than three quarters of teachers felt that providing continuous training and making a commitment to improving the skills of workers “could have an ameliorative effect on the skills gap.”

Elaine Garcia, Senior Programme Leader for London School of Business and Finance, stated: “When thinking about undertaking a postgraduate programme of study, many students will start by thinking about the subject they wish to study and the hard skills they will learn.

“This is obviously an important way to choose a course but something which prospective students are less likely to consider are the soft skills they will pick up on in their programme.

“Skills such as time management, being self-motivated, communication skills and problem-solving are really important to a prospective employer. They will be looking for not only hard skills but also soft transferable skills which help to create a harmonious and effective working environment.”