<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Finding a job is easier for people who are better equipped with soft skills, as they are more productive. Therefore, this article deals with the evaluation of soft skills of graduates from Czech public universities. The results show that the same soft skills are required from university graduates as from the population as a whole (only problem solving is more pronounced with them), but the required level of these skills is 42% higher in the case of graduates. Unfortunately, employers perceive the level of graduates’ soft skills insufficient as their level is by 16.46 to 31.15% lower than required. A more detailed analysis showed that, in terms of the development of soft skills, Czech universities provide a very homogenous service. Graduates of universities have nearly the same level of soft skills, while they can also identify similar strengths and weaknesses. These findings suggest that Czech universities should pay more attention to the systematic development of soft skills.</p></abstract>

Finding a job is easier for people who are better equipped with soft skills, as they are more productive. Therefore, this article deals with the evaluation of soft skills of graduates from Czech public universities. The results show that the same soft skills are required from university graduates as from the population as a whole (only problem solving is more pronounced with them), but the required level of these skills is 42% higher in the case of graduates. Unfortunately, employers perceive the level of graduates’ soft skills insufficient as their level is by 16.46 to 31.15% lower than required. A more detailed analysis showed that, in terms of the development of soft skills, Czech universities provide a very homogenous service. Graduates of universities have nearly the same level of soft skills, while they can also identify similar strengths and weaknesses. These findings suggest that Czech universities should pay more attention to the systematic development of soft skills.

Soft Skills of Czech Graduates

Review of Economic Perspectives

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Soft Skills of Czech Graduates"}

Finding a job is easier for people who are better equipped with soft skills, as they are more productive. Therefore, this article deals with the evaluation of...

Soft Skills of Czech Graduates

Published Online: Mar 20, 2018

Page range: 45 - 60

Received: Oct 17, 2017

Accepted: Jan 10, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2018-0003

Keywords
graduates, language skills, professional skills, skill gap, soft skills, university

© 2018 Jiří Balcar et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Soft Skills of Czech Graduates

Published Online: Mar 20, 2018

Page range: 45 - 60

Received: Oct 17, 2017

Accepted: Jan 10, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2018-0003

Keywordsgraduates, language skills, professional skills, skill gap, soft skills, university

© 2018 Jiří Balcar et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
graduates, language skills, professional skills, skill gap, soft skills, university