As coordinator for Bangkok University International (BUI) office of Academic and Professional development that comes under purview of the Dean of BUI, I routinely carry out partnership assessment analyses of universities in different countries. In the process, I have observed how progressive universities creatively change in their undergraduate educational structure according to the demands of the industrial and economic trends in order to remain relevant. One such industrial demand is in the form of the current trend towards the services-centred economy that places more importance on soft skills as one of the criteria for graduate employability. Having technical skills such as in Information Technology (IT) alone does not suffice anymore. Employers are beginning to expect and require the added criteria of soft skills for employment considerations. Even in Malaysia, research findings from studies by researchers like Yusof, H.S.M., Munap, R., Said, N.S.M., Ali, S.R.O., & Mat, K.A., (2017) who in their research entitled, “Employers Perspectives on Graduates Employability Skills: Soft Skills,” proved that there is a positive correlation between soft skills and employee productivity that affects employers perspective on undergraduate employability. Another study by Salleh, K.M., Sulaiman, N.L., Mohamad, M.M., & Sern, L.C., (2016) in their research entitled, “Assessing soft skills components in science and technology programs within Malaysian Technical Universities,” confirms the need for soft skills for the employability of graduates. The objective of this theoretical paper is to highlight current employers’ expectation for soft skills as one of the criteria for undergraduate employability. Therefore, this paper will examine and discuss: 1) What are the current employers’ perceptions of soft skills that undergraduates should possess; 2) What are the roles and meanings of soft skills; 3) How individual factors (gender, socioeconomic status) and contextual factors (industry, work culture, social stability) influences the development of soft skills; 4) How soft skills can be integrated as part of the formal learning cycle; 5) How soft skills can be integrated as part of individual personality development; and lastly, 6) How to measure soft skills before and after undergraduate employment. It is hoped that this paper will create awareness of the current industrial and employers’ employment expectations, and the meaning and role of soft skill as one of the criteria for undergraduate employability. Keywords: Soft skills, integrity, communication, courtesy, responsibility, social skills, positive attitude, professionalism, flexibility, teamwork, and work ethic

1. 16th APSSA 2018 Full paper template
Paper ID: [15]
Employers’ expectation for soft skills as one of the criteria
for undergraduate employability
Thesigan Nadarajan
Bangkok University International)
thesigannadarajan@gmail.com
As coordinator for Bangkok University International (BUI) office of Academic and Professional development
that comes under purview of the Dean of BUI, I routinely carry out partnership assessment analyses of
universities in different countries. In the process, I have observed how progressive universities creatively change
in their undergraduate educational structure according to the demands of the industrial and economic trends
in order to remain relevant. One such industrial demand is in the form of the current trend towards the
services-centred economy that places more importance on soft skills as one of the criteria for graduate
employability. Having technical skills such as in Information Technology (IT) alone does not suffice anymore.
Employers are beginning to expect and require the added criteria of soft skills for employment considerations.
Even in Malaysia, research findings from studies by researchers like Yusof, H.S.M., Munap, R., Said, N.S.M., Ali,
S.R.O., & Mat, K.A., (2017) who in their research entitled, “Employers Perspectives on Graduates Employability
Skills: Soft Skills,” proved that there is a positive correlation between soft skills and employee productivity that
affects employers perspective on undergraduate employability. Another study by Salleh, K.M., Sulaiman, N.L.,
Mohamad, M.M., & Sern, L.C., (2016) in their research entitled, “Assessing soft skills components in science and
technology programs within Malaysian Technical Universities,” confirms the need for soft skills for the
employability of graduates. The objective of this theoretical paper is to highlight current employers’
expectation for soft skills as one of the criteria for undergraduate employability. Therefore, this paper will
examine and discuss: 1) What are the current employers’ perceptions of soft skills that undergraduates should
possess; 2) What are the roles and meanings of soft skills; 3) How individual factors (gender, socioeconomic
status) and contextual factors (industry, work culture, social stability) influences the development of soft skills;
4) How soft skills can be integrated as part of the formal learning cycle; 5) How soft skills can be integrated as
part of individual personality development; and lastly, 6) How to measure soft skills before and after
undergraduate employment. It is hoped that this paper will create awareness of the current industrial and
employers’ employment expectations, and the meaning and role of soft skill as one of the criteria for
undergraduate employability.
Keywords: Soft skills, integrity, communication, courtesy, responsibility, social skills, positive attitude,
professionalism, flexibility, teamwork, and work ethic
Introduction
In my work involving university partnership assessment, I have observed how
progressive universities change according to demands from industrial and economic trends
in order to remain relevant. One current industrial demand is in the form of soft skills that
has become a criterion for graduate employability. Even in Malaysia, research findings from

2. 16th APSSA 2018 Full paper template
studies like, “Employers Perspectives on Graduates Employability Skills: Soft Skills,” (Yusof,
H.S.M., Munap, Said, Ali, & Mat, 2017) proves that there is a positive correlation between
soft skills, employee productivity, and undergraduate employability. This is further
reinforced by another study entitled, “Assessing soft skills components in science and
technology programs within Malaysian Technical Universities,” (Salleh, Sulaiman, Mohamad,
& Sern, 2016). Based on the foregoing evidences, the objective of this theoretical paper is to
highlight current employers’ expectation for soft skills as one of the criteria for
undergraduate employability.
1. Employer’s Perceptions of Soft Skills.
So what are the soft skills that employers perceive as a criterion for employability?
Marcel M. Robles succinctly pointed out, “Soft skills are employability skills that are
transferrable in many jobs” (Robles, 2012, p.404). She went on to summarize the top ten
soft skills that are perceived as important by business executives. They are: “… integrity,
communication, courtesy, responsibility, social skills, positive attitude, professionalism,
flexibility, teamwork, and work ethic” (Robles, 2012, p. 462). Due to the scope and
limitation of this paper, I will be discussing only the first two selected items as
demonstrative of the employers’ rationale for correlating soft skills and employability.
2. Meanings and Roles of Soft Skills.
For employers, integrity when positively practiced is a predictor for positive job
performances, resulting in increased revenue and when neglected is a predictor for negative
counterproductive work behaviours, resulting in a drop in revenue (Van Iddekinge, Roth,
Raymark & Odle-Dusseau, 2012, p.515). Next, employers perceive the soft skill of
communication in downward mode basically as the employees’ ability to convert
management decisions into actions while in upward mode, the employees’ ability to

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feedback useful and creative suggestions for improved management decision makings
(Rajhans, 2012, pp.81, 84). Having seen the employers’ rationale for correlating soft skills
and employability, we will now examine the individual and contextual factors affecting the
development of soft skills.
3. Individual and Contextual Factors Affecting the Development of Soft Skills
Shariffah Bahyah a Malaysian researcher reported that female participants rated
themselves on six soft skill factors that differed from the male’s five soft skill factors thereby
confirming that individual factor like gender affects the development of soft skills (Syed
Ahmad, 2013, p.1935). Likewise, socioeconomic status as an individual factor affects a
person’s development in all areas of their lives, right from childhood into adulthood
including the development of soft skills (Bradley & and Corwyn, 2002, pp. 372-378). In
regards to contextual factors like industry, the soft skills needed by a software company are
like “teamwork, communication skills, initiative and proactivity, analytical/problem-solving
skills, and interpersonal skills” (Matturro, G., 2013, p.136) in contrast to “time management,
crisis management, good communicator, customer relationships, empathy and knowledge
of other languages” by a global chain restaurant business (Aguirre, & Andrade, 2013, p.422).
In terms of the contextual factor of work culture, Ju Li Ng, Anya Johnson, Helena Nguyen,
and Markus Groth describes work culture as consisting of collective and shared interactive
meanings, beliefs, values, assumptions, and behaviours (Ng, Johnson, Nguyen, & Groth,
2014, p. 5) which due to group dynamics (formal group) leads to mutual group acceptance,
resistance or rejection of soft skills (Lucas, & Kline, 2008, p. 277). Thus, individual and
contextual factors affect the development of soft skills. We will now examine how soft skills
can be integrated into the curriculum at tertiary level.
4. Integrating Soft skills in Formal Learning Cycle

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Digvijay Pachauri & Aruna Yadav proposes three models for integrating soft skills into a
tertiary curriculum. According to them, Stand-alone Subject Model utilizes specific courses
as a means to teach the targeted soft skills. In the Embedded Model, soft skills are taught
through the use of specific activities and strategies rather than courses. The third approach
is a combination of the previous two Models (Pachauri & Yadav, 2013, pp. 24-25). Since
institutions of higher learning are the main developers of a nation’s human capital, the
integration of soft skills should begin with them (Ngang, 2011, p.109). Besides integrating
soft skills through university curriculums, they can also be integrated through individual
personality development.
5. Integrating Soft skills in Individual Personality Development
An overlapping of soft skills and personality traits like between the soft skills of
cooperation, assertion, and empathy and the big five personality traits like agreeableness
and extraversion directly affects personality development (Whitehurst, 2016, p.4) and vice
versa (Motah, 2008, pp. 219, 228) that makes the integration of soft skills in individual
personality development possible. The last thing we have to examine is how soft skills can
be measured before and after undergraduate employment?
5. Measuring soft skills before and after undergraduate employment.
The measurement of soft skills before and after undergraduate employment can be
done with instruments such as the “Modified Assessment of Soft Skills Instrument (MOSSAI)”
(Aworanti, Taiwo, & Iluobe, 2015, p.848). But is better to create and use local instruments
that are suitable for the local culture and soft skill conditioning. However, the reason for
measuring soft skills is to ensure that there are positive behavioural changes after the
inculcation of soft skills training. It is also needed to further fine tune any measuring
instrument used for assessment.

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Conclusion
What can be learned from this paper is that employer expectation for soft skills for
employability is here to stay. The employers expect it as they are aware that it affects their
business revenue directly. Thus, they expect tertiary institutions to be the main developer of
human capital trained in both soft and hard skills that are prepared for employability. And
thus it is our responsibility as educators to meet these expectations from the industry to
prepare graduates who have the employability soft skills along with their hard skills.
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