The role of soft skills in enhancing graduates’ employability: A literature review

Abstract

The 21st-century workplace requires graduates to develop soft skills, which are crucial for their career success and employability. This review article aims to explore the importance of soft skills in improving graduates’ employability prospects. Drawing on secondary sources, the article shows that soft skills play a crucial role in employability by meeting employers’ demands and priorities, building job search confidence and self-efficacy, supporting career development and professional advancement, and ensuring relevance in the 21st-century workplace. The most needed soft skills for students are leadership, communication, networking, negotiation, teamwork, critical thinking, problem-solving, self-marketing, learnability, and anger management. This article also discusses strategies for developing soft skills for enhancing employability, including self-directed learning, extracurricular activity programs, integration of work-based learning opportunities, employer-supported mentorship and training initiatives, and curriculum improvement through collaborative industry-university partnerships. The article concludes with implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research.