Managing soft skills for an innovative approach to employability

The paper underlines the crucial importance of soft skills for improving employability in today’s European labour market. For the study, extensive surveys were conducted with over 350 participants from various European organizations to identify the soft skills most valued by employers and those recognized by jobseekers. The results show that key soft skills such as communication, teamwork, problem solving, adaptability and leadership are an important complement to technical skills. However, despite their recognized value, soft skills often lack systematic development and formal validation as education and training programmes continue to prioritize hard skills. To address this imbalance, the paper proposes the development of a standardized soft skills reference framework to support more consistent recognition and assessment of these skills. This initiative aims to improve job matching and workforce allocation by enabling clearer communication of applicants’ full skill sets, benefiting jobseekers, employers and career development professionals. The study calls for a paradigm shift in the way soft skills are integrated into recruitment and workforce planning. It suggests that a more structured approach could significantly improve the effectiveness, adaptability and competitiveness of the European workforce.