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Graduate readiness for the employment market of the 4th industrial revolution
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is, first, to examine student perspectives of their university experience in terms of the soft employability skills they develop; second, how prepared those students feel for the future employment market and finally investigate whether there are differences in perceptions between Chinese and Malaysian students given their different educational experience. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, 361 predominantly Chinese undergraduate students at two universities, one in China and the other in Malaysia completed the 15-item Goldsmiths soft skills inventory using an online survey. Findings: The results, analysed using factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, indicated that the university curriculum develops student soft skills, particularly in the Malaysian university and supports the relationship between soft skill and student preparedness for employment. The results also indicate that compared with the respondents from the Chinese university, the Malaysian university respondents were more likely to be positive to statements concerning their respective university's ability to develop their soft skills. Research limitations/implications: Such findings have implications for education providers and business in that it is important for universities to embed soft skills into the curriculum in order to develop graduate work readiness. Originality/value: What this research contributes is not only consolidation of existing research in the contemporary context of a disruptive jobs market, it takes research forward through analysing student perceptions from two universities, one in Malaysia and the other in China, of the skills they develop at university and the importance of soft skills to them and their perceptions of future employment and employability. Such research will provide insight, in particular, into the role of education providers, the phenomena of underemployment among graduates in China, and be of practical significance to employers and their perception that graduates lack the necessary soft skills for the workplace (Anonymous, 2017a; Stapleton, 2017; British Council, 2015; Chan, 2015).
Journal Article
When Action Speaks Louder than Words: Exploring Non-Verbal and Paraverbal Features in Dyadic Collaborative VR
Soft skills such as communication and collaboration are vital in both professional and educational settings, yet difficult to train and assess objectively. Traditional role-playing scenarios rely heavily on subjective trainer evaluations—either in real time, where subtle behaviors are missed, or through time-intensive post hoc analysis. Virtual reality (VR) offers a scalable alternative by immersing trainees in controlled, interactive scenarios while simultaneously capturing fine-grained behavioral signals. This study investigates how task design in VR shapes non-verbal and paraverbal behaviors during dyadic collaboration. We compared two puzzle tasks: Task 1, which provided shared visual access and dynamic gesturing, and Task 2, which required verbal coordination through separation and turn-taking. From multimodal tracking data, we extracted features including gaze behaviors (eye contact, joint attention), hand gestures, facial expressions, and speech activity, and compared them across tasks. A clustering analysis explored whether o not tasks could be differentiated by their behavioral profiles. Results showed that Task 2, the more constrained condition, led participants to focus more visually on their own workspaces, suggesting that interaction difficulty can reduce partner-directed attention. Gestures were more frequent in shared-visual tasks, while speech became longer and more structured when turn-taking was enforced. Joint attention increased when participants relied on verbal descriptions rather than on a visible shared reference. These findings highlight how VR can elicit distinct soft skill behaviors through scenario design, enabling data-driven analysis of collaboration. This work contributes to scalable assessment frameworks with applications in training, adaptive agents, and human-AI collaboration.
Journal Article
Medical Students’ Achievement in Elective Posting Using Online Platform Under Movement Control Order During COVID-19 Pandemic
Background Medical schools worldwide emphasize elective posting (EP) in undergraduate medical curriculum, allowing students freedom to choose a project of their interest. At University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), medical faculty, EP of four-weeks takes place at the end of year-3, where students freely choose project. Objectives During COVID -19 pandemic in 2020 under movement control order (MCO), there was a shift in the types of electives undertaken by students, along with shifting of teaching-learning from face-to-face to online. Method This study aimed to determine the students’ achievement during EP under MCO. It was a retrospective study designed and conducted from October 2020 to September 2021 by examining 122 year-3 medical students’ EP performance documents of 488 Padlet journals uploaded weekly to Padlet.com and 122 reflective reports submitted at completion of EP. A qualitative data analysis was done, and a panel of experts verified the outcomes. Appropriate sentences were coded into several themes and subthemes. Results Students’ achievement in EP was categorized into three major themes: Theme-1: Course Learning Outcomes (CLO) soft skills; Theme-2: Additional soft skills; and Theme-3: Hard skills. Reflective was the main subtheme under CLO soft skill, showing the students’ ability to reflect. Adaptability and problem-solving emerged as key skills under theme-2, while media production was noted key skills under theme-3. Despite the imposed restrictions during pandemic with shifting teaching-learning approach, students achieved the skills stated in the CLO of elective course, including additional soft and hard skills. Conclusion These findings can be utilized to boost the design and implementation of future elective postings. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 24 No. 02 April’25 Page : 629-640
Journal Article
Soft skills for children : a guide for parents and teachers
\"This book will introduce fourteen of the most important soft skills in the field of education. It will explain how each skill is used in teaching as well as ideas for how to model and explain them in college classrooms, field experiences, and student teaching\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
New graduate nurses’ self-assessed competencies: An integrative review
Much of the ongoing shortage of nurses can be attributed to high turnover rates, and open positions are mostly filled by new graduate nurses who often lack the competencies required to provide quality patient care. An additional problem is that over 20% of these nurses leave their positions within 1 year, and low nursing competency is a main contributor to their decision. New graduate nurses' competencies are typically evaluated by experienced nurses who attempt to provide objective assessment of deficiencies, but this approach has not reduced turnover rates. Therefore, this integrative review explored new graduate nurses' self-assessed competencies. The review revealed that new graduate nurses' self-assessed deficiencies included advanced technical skills, critical thinking, communication, teamwork, helping role, and professionalism, most of which were associated with “soft” skills. New graduate nurses’ possession not only of “hard” nursing skills within the cognitive and psychomotor domains but also of soft skills that mostly lie within the affective domain is vital to achieve higher retention rates. Because soft-skill competencies are problematic to objectively evaluate, recommendations include development and frequent application of a more objective measure such as a rubric, greater emphasis on soft skills in education, and supervised hands-on training in supportive practice settings.
•New graduate nurses have basic clinical knowledge and skills required in practice.•New graduate nurses are concerned about their lack of soft skill competencies.•Soft skill competency development is a key to retention of novice nurses.•More timely assessment based on psychometrically valid tools is imperative.•Objective soft skill competency appraisal tools should be developed and applied.
Journal Article
A Socio-Technical Framework for Lean Project Management Implementation towards Sustainable Value in the Digital Transformation Context
Motivated by the project uncertainties of complex realities brought by the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 (I4.0), researchers must look at Lean project management (LPM) soft skills as a new mindset to have a holistic view of customer needs and to improve value to the organization. In the digital transformation era, it is essential that Lean practitioners develop socio-technical thinking while also prioritizing interpersonal soft skills that directly affect their ability to solve problems in order for the company to grow sustainably. This paper aims to identify the critical soft skills (CSSs) to implement LPM in the I4.0 era and to investigate, from the perspective of organizations, the latent factors for LPM implementation that generate sustainable value. For this purpose, a mixed-method approach was used, combining literature review and a survey with 166 Brazilian professionals. This empirical study intends to set the CSSs from a practice perspective and explore the benefits they generate throughout the organization. Data analysis was conducted with descriptive statistics and factorial analysis. Research findings revealed convergences regarding the practitioners’ perception regarding the ten CSSs identified in the literature, and portray two latent factors, human and process factors, which can assist decision-makers in implementing LPM by offering a better perspective of the key factors that add sustainable value for companies in the digital transformation context. This study contributes to the debate on rethinking traditional skills, accentuates the need for adjustments, and proposes a socio-technical framework that can be used in a project manager’s routine to enable better Lean project execution, help with decision making, and increase the understanding and meeting of customer needs.
Journal Article