International Research Symposium

Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

IRSyRUSl 2015

Factors Affecting Acquisition of Soft Skills and the

Level of Soft Skills Among University Undergraduates
(With Special Reference to Management Students of
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka)
Keerthana Ravindran1, Bandara CMYSS2
Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management Studies,
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka1, Senior Lecturer, Department of Business Management, Faculty of
Management Studies, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka2.

ABSTRACT
Soft skills; defined as skills, abilities and traits that pertain to personality, attitude, and behaviour rather
than to formal or technical knowledge (Moss and Tilly, 1996), are very important for graduates in
ensuring employability and career development. It has been observed that employers as well as educators
frequently complain about lack of soft skills among graduates from tertiary education institutions (Schulz,
2008). Soft skills are identified as one of the highly concerned factors of the employers in Sri Lanka and
therefore the challenging need of developing skills is suggested to give prominence in higher education
sector (Ariyawansa and Perera, ----). Upon this ground the present study mainly aims at identifying the
relationship between level of soft skills prevailing among university students and the factors affecting the
acquisition of soft skills with special reference to Rajarata University of Sri Lanka. Data were collected
from 300 sample among 1365 study population with regard to both dependent and independent variables
by using a five point Likert scale, where data analysis was done through descriptive statistical analysis
along with regression analysis. Factors affecting the acquisition of soft skills were identified under six
major categories; awareness and preference; impact of society; teaching methods and classroom
activities; Observation and self-motivation; infrastructure and technology; University exposure where all
the factors show positive impacts on soft skill acquisition. Thus, it is suggested that improving the
condition of these factors will make a more favourable ground for skill acquisition with regard to
university students.

KEY WORDS: Soft skills, factors affecting soft skill acquisition.

1
Corresponding author: Keerthana Ravindran: [email protected]

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1. Introduction
Soft skills are often known as personal skills, non-academic skills, life skills, interpersonal skills,
employability skills, behavioural skills, non-technical skills social skills and emotional intelligence
(M.S.Rao, 2013; Rosie Garwood 2012; Lei Han 2014). A set of skills which is addressed in various names
as well given various definitions; often confused with the common skillset. Thus to distinct the soft skills it
is essential to know about hard skills.
According to Diane H. Parente, John D. Stephan, and Randy C. Brown 2012 Hard skills are academic and
technical. Soft skills are the interpersonal and life skills that help people to share their hard skills
effectively. Soft skills are the polite and pleasing way of communicating with others to get tasks executed
effectively. Soft skills are about how to carry oneself and how to respond to a situation through a positive,
right and strong attitude. Hard skills are mostly tangible while soft skills are mostly intangible. Hard skills
depend on the type of trade and industry one is in while soft skills depend on the type of people in the
industry and the organizational culture.
Further Cristobal Cobo (2013) says hard skills are about knowledge of the subject while soft skills are
about personality, attitude and behavioural aspects. Hard skills are easy to identify and can be measured
with accuracy while soft skills are tough to identify and cannot be measured with accuracy. Most
successful leaders have both hard and soft skills. Soft skills enhance employability, help to build
relationships with others, minimize conflict, promote networking and contribute to career success.
People who are book-smart are often good at hard skills but find hard to be good at soft skills says Lawler,
Boudreau & Mohrman, 2006. What is written in books can be different from the real world. Some
professors and lecturers who are great at hard skills and educate many subordinates tend to fail in
corporate world in their own lives because, of the lack of soft skills. But at the same time many corporate
leaders, possess soft skills because they interact frequently with other people in the firm, but may lack the
requisite hard skills.
Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher who lived in the sixth century BC, said that the softest things in the world
overcome the hardest things in the world. Soft skills help people to do things successfully. As they reach
higher positions they need more soft skills. For example a porter does not need much soft skills, a gardener
does not need a lot of soft skills but when it comes to people working in corporates from all levels such as
middle managers and top managers need to have a sound level of soft skills. Undegraduate students are
more focused in corporate jobs. Hence they are expected to have a good level of soft skills. Since it is a
surging area in the current job market Undergraduate students have to possess a sound knowledge in it.
Many researchers have addressed on soft skills and its significance in the job market but there are no more
illustrations on factors affecting soft skill acquisition. Even the studies available under soft skills are not
relating to Sri Lankan context. When soft skills are playing a huge role in career life it is essential to know
the factor influencing on it, which will give a root for the people who are lack in it. These reasons did drive
to do a research on this topic to ensure the future development of soft skills among Undergraduate students
who are looking forward to joining the job market in the near future. The finding of this research will open
a path to further evaluation on the stream of soft skills and will help the faculty to find out the level of their
student’s soft skills and stability in their career.

2. Problem statement
In the current world soft skills are being much appreciated in all fields and levels; especially in the job
market. When there is a huge demand for soft skills, awareness on soft skills and the methods to develop
them are being lower among adults. As undergraduates are being pushed to the job market directly from
universities, they are been expected to have a high level of soft skills. But in the reality researcher noticed
a drop fall in the level of soft skills possessed by adults. Therefore researcher decided to analyse this
problem among management undergraduates of Rajarata University of Sri Lanka.
Lecturers give more attention to the improvement of the soft skills of the undergraduates as they are aware
of job market trends and the importance of soft skills to resist in a job. Thus they create many opportunities
to develop their soft skills such as public speaking, group activities, projects presentations etc. but the
lecture panel feels, the involvement of the students in the activities is less than it should be. Further they
noticed the repetitive participation of few students whereas others stayed back. Lectures try to inject many
group assignments which will influence soft skills such as team work, collaboration, communication,
negotiation, problem solving etc. But most of the time the projects are done by one or two in the group.

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There is a crystal clear view of high absenteeism in the lecture room on a day of pre-informed, class room
public speaking or a random presentation. Even though the participation in the classroom speaking tests is
high, it is just because the participation affects the final results of the subject. Presentations are given to
groups due to time restrictions, often presented by two to three students who are forward to participate.
Thus the skill level of the students who often do presentations and the public speaking is higher than the
students who are not involved further in lectures observed the interaction and the communication level of
students with the lecturers are low than it should be.
The level of employability is low among the well-educated and qualified students in Sri Lanka which is
proved by the educated unemployment rate of central bank of Sri Lanka in 2008 and it extends as one out
of five in the job market is over qualified for the job market and does not possess needed technical and soft
skills.
Wijesingha (2010) says the country has to recognize that education means not just academic learning, but
also the development of professional and vocational skills, and the soft skills that will allow these to be
used productively.Thus having high level of soft skills is required by the job market and the society as
well. Identifying the existing level of soft skills of the students will give a picture where they stand and the
factors which affecting the acquisitionof people skills will help the undergraduates to improve their level
of soft skills further more. Therefore this research tends to identify the factors affecting acquisition of soft
skills among the management undergraduate students of Rajarata University of Sri Lanka along with the
existing level of soft skills they possess.

3. Objectives of the study

The objectives of the study are to identify the existing level of soft skills possessed by the management
under graduate students of Rajarata University of Sri Lanka; to identify the factors affecting acquisition of
soft skills of the management under graduate students of Rajarata University of Sri Lanka;to identifying
the relationship between the identified factors which influence the acquisition of soft skills and the level of
soft skills of the management under graduate students of Rajarata University of Sri Lanka.

4. Review of Literature

4.1. “Soft skills”

Researchers and academic expertise tend to discover the importance and value of the soft skills as the word
has the great command in educational and carrier development. Even without knowing the term most
people build their soft skills to cater to the demand of job markets and sustain in the competitive market.
It fails to have the one shot definition for soft skills as it possesses a huge value. The term soft skills is
explained in various ways by many researchers, since the definition of the concept differs from discipline
to discipline, from context to context and possibly also from nation to nation. There are numerous
definitions of business and management skills in the literature (Andrews & Higson 2008; Clark 1993;
Rainsbury, Rainsbury, Hodges, Burchell & Lay 2002,) ‘Soft skills’ was first referred in 1972, was not
widely used until early 1990s although these skills existed in different form. Moss and Tilly define soft
skills as: “Skills, abilities, and traits that pertain to personality, attitude and behaviour rather than to formal
or technical knowledge.” These are the polite and pleasing presentation of hard skills and essential at every
level of organization for smooth and successful functioning. Nowadays, the employers are looking for
these skills at the time of interview. Hence, these skills are also known as employability skills.
In other words Penelope Tobin, explain in herpaper "Soft Skills: the hard facts" (2008), terms "traits and
abilities of attitude and behaviour, rather than of knowledge or technical aptitude", are too often neglected.
Further the soft skills are defined as the “interpersonal, human, people or behavioural skills needed to
apply technical skills and knowledge in the workplace” (Weber et al. 2009:356). The authors emphasize a
single point always that the soft skills are the traits, abilities and skills of a person which lead to the
success thus it depends on many factors. Recently, educational researchers and employers have placed
increasing attention to the importance of soft-skills (Chamorro-Premuzicet al., 2010).

4.2. Soft skills categories

It is observed that different authors refer to different types of soft skills in their studies to define soft skills.
Further they use a different set of soft skills to evaluate graduate employability. According to Nyman
(2006) there are five types of skills which he included in his study on soft skills of engineers, which are
Ambiguity, Relationship building, Decision making, Executive presence and Humour. Weber et al, (2009)
speaks about 101 very basic level soft skills to measure soft skill competence among entry level managers

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in the hospitality sector. Kramer (2011) illustrates that soft skills are used to execute the hard skills and
describes soft skills are the professional attitudes that correspond with one’s personality and behaviour.
They include creativity, communication, problem solving, critical thinking, leadership, and team work.
Ketter (2011) says soft skills are ‘must-haves’ in future in workplace. Further he identifies key soft skill
types which will help an individual to be successful in their work place as, social intelligence,
collaboration, communication, listening, and novel and adaptive thinking. Balaji and Somashekar (2009) in
their study on ‘comparative study of soft skills among engineers’, identified 14 soft skills necessary for
being successful in both their career and personal life. They are leadership, team work, interpersonal,
problem solving, creativity/innovation, written communication, oral communication, flexibility,
presentation, continuous learning, futuristic thinking, decision making, self-management and listening. The
need of soft skills in each job depends on the nature and the culture of the job and the organization an
individual looking to work (Ketter, 2011).
Hence looking at all the illustrations and the classifications of the professionals and researchers the recent
definition and classification of Lei Han (2014) on soft skills comprises all the soft skills expected by the
employers and the society. Those are, hard, work Attitude, People skills, Professionalism and Self-
management skills.Self-Management Skills address the way to perceive themselves and others, manage
personal emotions, and react to adverse situations. A person with a strong inner excellence can have a
strong mental and emotional foundation to succeed in their career. Self-management skills basically
include self-control and self-monitoring. When it comes to behaviours, a person observes action and
behaviours and avoids certain behaviours. Self-management skills are required as they direct the
individuals in a correct path without any external observations of seniors. An individual with higher Self-
Management Skills will handle himself in a good manner which will increase the productivity. Meanwhile
having a higher level of Self-Management Skills will help to prevent and reduce the conflicts and
misunderstandings. An individual who is more concerned about Self-Management Skills will enrich the
society by way of improving himself. Thus there are ten main Self-Management Skills that are been
identified by the researcher which will enrich the productivity and the well-being those are, growth
Oriented Mind-Set; Self-Awareness; Patience; Self-Confidence / Self-Esteem; Resilience; Emotion
Regulation; Perceptiveness; Stress Management; Persistence; Skills To Forgive And Forget.
People skill is often known as the ability to communicate effectively with people in a friendly way,
especially in business .According to the Portland Business Journal, people skills are described as
understanding themselves and moderating their responses; talking effectively and empathizing accurately;
building relationships of trust, respect and productive interactions.People Skills address how to best
interact and work with others, from which they can build meaningful work relationships, influence others
perception of individuals and their work, and motivate their actions. People skill can be further divided
into Conventional and Tribal. Conventional skills are skills that appears in most job descriptions. This is
the base of evaluation in any point of work place. There are many conventional skills, commonly used skill
set is Communication Skills; Management Skills; Teamwork Skills; Interpersonal Relationship Skills;
Presentation Skills; Meeting Management Skills; Facilitating Skills; Selling Skills; Leadership Skills;
Mentoring / Coaching Skills; Managing Upwards; Self-Promotion Skills; Skills In Dealing With Difficult
Personalities; Skills In Dealing With Difficult/Unexpected Situations; Savvy In Handling Office Politics;
Influence / Persuasion; Negotiation Skills; and Networking Skills

4.3. Importance of Soft skills

The nature of management and business world has changed dramatically from the last decade, largely
because of globalization, technological advancements and changes in the economic landscape, which is the
concentration of market power in large pension and mutual funds (Albrecht & Sack 2000). The ever-
increasing numbers of people travelling and seeking employment internationally (Andrews & Higson
2008), the exponential growth in the number of international business alliances and cross border
recruitment of talent have made the competitive landscape of businesses global. This global marketplace,
with the complexity and ambiguity of a high complement of multinational key role players and
stakeholders, requires a new set of aptitudes (knowledge, skills, abilities and attributes) to perform at the
level required of global managers (Caligiuri & DiSanto 2001; Caliguiri 2006; Gupta & Govindarajan 2002;
Stroh & Caliguiri 1998a, 1998b). The scale of competitiveness in the graduate recruitment market is
therefore burgeoning and will probably continue to do so because of the increased mobility of graduates
who are willing and able to go wherever the best opportunities are (Andrews & Higson 2008).
Many authors valued the fact that the relevance of any development intervention should be determined by
an assessment of requirements needed for the job, these requisite competencies include skills, abilities and

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behaviours in other words soft skills that will enable the incumbent to perform the job (Schippmann et al.
2000). Gullivan, Truex and Kvasny (2003) analysed the skill requirements mentioned in online vacancy
advertisements for accounting and MIS professionals and found that 26% of all skills mentioned were soft
skills.
In addition, today’s complex marketplace compels, managers, accounting professionals (specifically
auditors and financial consultants) and university students to work and perform in adaptive environments
of multidisciplinary and cross-functional teams. Teams are often quickly formed and involve internal and
external role players of diverse cultural backgrounds, levels of expertise and perspectives of the project or
expected outcome. In these complex circumstances, soft skills and a well-honed set of professional traits
and attributes, such as tolerance of ambiguities, cultural acceptance, self-confidence, creative thinking
skills and ability to give and receive feedback, are crucial to achieve overall success. In these projects,
managers and accounting professionals are expected to act either as team members or as team or sub team
leaders, or both. Unfortunately, some graduates and highly technically skilled accounting professionals
have been found to be lacking in these interpersonal skills (Riley, Horman, & Messner 2008).

4.4. Factors affecting soft skills acquisition

A second stream of research regarding managerial skills focuses on determining the mechanisms best
suited to enable managers or management students to acquire, or learn, the necessary soft skills. Kolb
(1984) pointed out four mechanisms that describe how individuals learn skills. Those are: concrete
experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation.
Aricia E. Lafrance says in an article about soft skills as “Because soft skills are developed over time, it is
important for teachers, counsellors, and parents to work together to help students acquire these skills early.
Through modelling, the use of puzzles, books, and other resources, students can learn soft skills. The
easiest and most valuable way to instil these skills is to model them. When students see their parents,
counsellors, teachers and other adults demonstrate these skills they not only understand the value and feel
inspired to adopt them, they see how and when to apply them.” This emphasises that the skills are acquired
and developed by observations. Further she says that individuals should be given some work to them to
practice and learn thing, which is about experience.
Further Dennis E. Coates (2006) says as individuals learn how to deal with relationships and other life
challenges “on the street” at a very early age. They observe how the people around them do things, they
experiment, and they stick with what works for them. In which way he emphasises on the observation is a
factor that influences the acquisition of soft skills. Along with that, in the same article “People skill
training: are you getting the return on your investment, with an environment of support, encouragement
and reinforcement, an organization can achieve the desired return on a considerable investment in people
skills training. This emphasises that the external factors such as infrastructures, motivation and the internal
factors such as willingness or preference do play a major role in soft skill acquisition.
If designed properly, simulated/experiential methods may provide opportunities for students to acquire
“soft” management skills as well. In a simulated teamwork environment, students can experience group
processes and often have the opportunity to experiment with new behaviours in a team setting (Teach and
Govahi, 1993). In addition, team environments can highlight the need for better communication and team
cohesion to improve decision-making processes (Aquino and Reed, 1998). Such improved decision-
making has been shown to lead to better performance of teams and firms (Aquino and Reed, 1998;
Michalisinet al., 2004a). Thus, a well-structured experiential environment can build participants’ skill sets
over time in much the same way as real-world work experiences do (Elmuti, 2004; Whetten and Clark,
1996). Hirsch and Collins (1983), say that “a study stream improvement in the quality of communication
skills”. Whereby they say that continues writing practices improves the communication skills.
M.S.Rao (2013) says, that the soft skills are learned and acquired through studying others, observation,
teaching, training, experience, interactions, evaluation and feedbacks. Rosie Garwood (2012), also says
that to make the training a priority to develop soft skills. She adds further that self-awareness and
delegation will enhances a person’s level of soft skills. R de Villiers, 2010, mentions in his research, the
incorporation of soft skills into accounting curricula: preparing accounting graduates for their
unpredictable futures, faculties should design the syllabus to facilitate the students to acquire and develop
soft skills. He further says that Strategy, Using team experiences, Interdisciplinary multi teams, Using
assessments, Cooperative learning, internships and significant placemen, Real-life application: role play,
simulations and case studies, Intercultural collaboration – exchange programmes and online collaboration,

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sing online support and methodologies – becoming IT wise will help to develop the level of soft skills of
the under graduates.

5. Research methodology
The study was carried out with two main variables; independent variable as factors affecting soft skill
acquisition and dependent variable as the level of soft skills of the undergraduates.Based on the review of
literature dimensions of the independent variable were identified as awareness and preference; impact of
society; teaching methods and classroom activities; Observation and self-motivation; infrastructure and
technology; University exposure.Apart from these factors it was attempted to check the influence of some
general and personal factors of each individual, mentioned in various studies on their level of soft skills
which are, The place of origin; School attended; Family members – the number of family members;
Parents educational qualification; Parents profession; Family structure; Religion; Accommodation in the
university.Accordingly 17 soft skills under people skills and 10 skills under self-management skills were
identified as the dimension of dependent variable based on the review of literature. A questionnaire was
designed incorporating the elements of these dimensions based on Likert scale where the statements were
ranked from 1 to 5 which expressed strongly disagree to strongly agree accordingly,and distributed among
the sample.
Population of the study consists of under graduates of the management faculty of Rajarata University of
Sri Lanka, which comprises 1365 undergraduates. A sample of 300 undergraduates was examined based
on simple random method.The sample consists of 70 students from first year, 85 students from second
year, 84 students from third year and 61 from final year on a proportionate method.

The data collected from a self-administered questionnaire was processed through SPSS to arrive at the
results of the research. A regression analysis method was used to identify the relationship between the
factors affecting acquisition of soft skills and the existing level of soft skills. Mean value of dependent
variable was used to identify the existing level of soft skills possessed by the management under graduates.
Cronbach alpha figure of the data set used is 0.906. It shows that data is reliable, where the value for
Cronbach alpha is more than 7. The data collected from the respondents are reliable to carry out an
analysis according to scholars.
Various other softwares such as Microsoft excel were used to compare the level of soft skills according to
the demographic factors. Further an ANOVA test was undertaken to check whether there is any possibility
that the background and the general factors have any impact on the acquisition of soft skills. A compared
mean test was under taken to identify the level of impact on the factors identified. Finally a regression
analysis was under taken to check the impact and the influence of each factor on acquisition of soft skills.

6. Results and discussions

According to the results derived from SPSS the level of soft skills was spread equally among the soft skill
categories. All essential twenty seven soft skills were having more than 3 point which indicates that each
soft skill is possessed equally. In all the soft skills, handling office politics and ability to influence others
and getting the work done is comparatively low than all other soft skills, of which mean values are
accordingly 3.25 and 2.26.
The level of soft skills possessed varies from male to female. Some soft skills such as, self-confidence,
handle and control emotions, understanding unspoken words looking at situations, managing themselves at
any situation, forget and forgive people, influencing people and getting the work done, presentations and
public speaking skills, managing meetings, arranging events and coordinating resources, ability to make
others agree with their opinions, ability to coach and direct others, maintain good relationship with higher
officers, handling different personalities, ability to deal difficult and unexpected situations, handling office
politics, ability to influence others and get work done, negotiation skills, making network between people,
self-promoting skills have been possessed more by male than female. This is more than a half of the soft
skills that is expected by the job market.
Female undergraduates are good in growth oriented mind set, self-awareness, ability to overcome from
worst situations, ability to maintain same energy towards any work at any given time, communication
skills, and team work. Both male and female under graduates possess more or less equal level of patience
and ability to lead any events.All age group has a good level of soft skills. At the same time it has a

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progressive increase according to their age. 1st year students and the 4th year students possess high level of
soft skills.
Mean value of each factor category classified by the researcher was evaluated to check the impact on
acquiring soft skills. Each factor category has equal level of impact on acquiring the skills. Awareness and
preference, influence of society and observation and self-motivation rank are equal and high around 3.8 in
influencing the soft skill acquisition. A correlation test was done for all factors individually to check the
relationship between the factors and the level of soft skills. Preferences, Impact of the society towards soft
skill based activities have a weak but a positive relationship on acquiring soft skills. Teaching methods and
classroom activities, observation and self-motivation, infrastructure and technology, university exposure
have a moderate positive relationship on acquisition of soft skills. From the evaluations level of impact and
the relationship of each factors which influences acquisition of soft skills were found as follows,

· Level of soft skills = 2.612 + (0.263 º Awareness and preference)

· Level of soft skills = 2.866 + (0.218 º Impact of the society)
· Level of soft skills = 1.891 + (0.428 º Teaching methods and classroom activities)
· Level of soft skills = 2.205 + (0.368 º Observation and self-motivation)
· Level of soft skills = 2.211 + (0.418 º Infrastructure and technology)
· Level of soft skills = 2.306 + (0.397 º University exposure)
To check the impact of general factors on the level of soft skills, each factor was evaluated individually,
and was done an ANOVA test was done individually. Students from village council possess comparatively
higher level of soft skills than urban and municipal council. Students from Mahavidyalaya possess a higher
level of skills compared to central and national schools. Students from the large families which consists
more members have higher level of soft skills whereas the students from small families possess lower level
of soft skills. Parents’ education level and profession has a significant impact on the students’ level of soft
skills. Further the ANOVA test for the religion on the level of soft skills shows a significant impact on
which future assessments will be allowed. University accommodation of students does not have any
significant impact on soft skill acquisition.

7. Conclusion and recommendations

When analysing the level of soft skills of the undergraduates, researcher has found that the overall level is
moderate looking at all twenty seven soft skills. All undergraduates’ possess over the moderate rate in all
soft skills. The variation among the level of soft skills is lower than expected. When analysing the soft
skills according to the gender, researcher expected that the level of some soft skills such as
communication, making networks etc. may vary within gender in a significant level. Whereas the results
says that the level of all soft skills have some variation among gender. Some of the soft skills are high
among the male compared to female. In the mean time some soft skills are high within the female
compared to male students. Even though there is fluctuation the change between genders is not much
significant. The level of soft skill varies in a comparatively low rate within the moderate range.
When it comes to age, each academic year contains various aged students. Thus the researcher has
analysed the level of soft skills according to the age as well. Before doing the analysis part the researcher
assumed that the level of soft skill may increase as they grow. As the researchers assumption the result
also gave the same result. That is the level of soft skills thatincreases as people grow older.
The level of soft skills was analysed based on the academic year as well. The researcher expected that the
level of soft skills may increase according to the year vies versa. But the results were quite different from
expected. Three consecutive years have the expected result starting from second year. But the level of soft
skills of the first year students are comparatively high than the second year and the third year students.
This should but the result of exposure the new students have before they enter the university. However this
cannot be predicted exactly as each academic year contains different aged students.
The researcher has identified the awareness and the preference as the first factor which has nine sub factors
which may have impact on soft skill acquisition. The analysis conforms that the awareness and the
preference has a positive but a low impact on soft skill acquisition. The second factor consists of five sub
factors which relates to impact of the society. This too has a positive but a low impact for soft skill
acquisition. Thirdly the teaching methods and the classroom activities which contains eleven sub factors
have a moderate and a positive relationship. The next factor which is the observation and self- motivation
has a moderate and a positive relationship with soft skill acquisition. This contains seven sub factors.

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The infrastructure and the technology which contains seven sub factors has a moderate and a positive
relationship on soft skill acquisition. The last factor which is university exposure contains four sub factors
and has a moderate and positive relationship. Thus expected and predicted, all the factors identified have a
positive relationship with soft skill acquisition. Further the researcher has evaluated the general factors as
well, considering they might also have some impact on the level of soft skills. Thus a persons’ family
background, and the basic facts were analysed to check the relationship with soft skill acquisition.
Researcher analysed nearly ten basic factor and background factors in which only two factors do not have
any major impact on soft skill acquisition. Thus the other factors also can be considered as they have some
impact on soft skill acquisition.
There are many researches on the field of soft skills, which are about employability, necessity of soft skills
and hard skills. But there are no more researches about the factors affecting soft skill acquisition. Knowing
about soft skills will not be useful without the scope and the tools to improve them. Thus this is a very
good area to do further study.
Since this is about the relationship between the factors which effect the knowledge and skills, there are
many unaddressed factors that can influence the acquisition. Apart from the factors predicted by early
studies, researcher has imitated the general factors also as factors which may have impact. Therefore the
future studies can include them also as a factor which influences soft skill acquisition. Factors that are
affecting acquisition of soft skills can be identified in many ways. Which is a scope for further studies.
Soft skills are required in the current world and the most important part is that it is being an evaluation tool
in many organizations. So many philosophers are now into the topic of soft skills as it is evolving among
the corporate world. Soft skills and other skills are bonded and learned throughout a humans’ life span.
Thus identification of the main factors will be necessary to improve them. Therefor doing a study on this
field in future is needed.

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