A Comparative Study of Soft Skills among Engineers

‘Soft skills’ are the extra or additional skills required by engineers of the 21st century. Effective communication and interpersonal skills are crucial to increase employability and also to compete successfully in this dynamic global environment. Soft skills provide students with a strong conceptual and practical framework in building, developing and managing teams. It plays an important role in the overall personality development thereby enhancing the student’s career prospects. Some of the ‘soft skills’ that are necessary for being successful are leadership quality, team work, conflict management skills, interpersonal skills, self-management skills, decision making capacity, futuristic thinking, continuous learning capacity, empathy, persuasion, negotiation, presentation skills, personal effectiveness, diplomacy, orientation towards goal, flexibility, good customer service, written and oral communication skills, creativity/ innovation, and problem solving capacity. This study reveals the importance of soft skills, taking into consideration 14 core dimensions, which play a vital role in the overall personality development of the engineering students. The above mentioned dimensions have been considered while measuring the presence of soft skills