The Power of Soft Skills: A Relevant Referent to Solve Troubled Situations in the School Space

In a world that is moving a lot, disrupted by digitalization and which requires a great deal of adaptability, soft skills are a major notion at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This article presents a study of soft skills and proposes to continue the scientific development of transversal skills by critically questioning them. The strong emphasis on transversal skills in education, training, and work contrasts with the critical positions adopted in the scientific field towards this concept. The analysis of the conceptualizations carried out, according to the «daily» and «scientific» perspectives, in the school field and in the context of the training-employment relationship highlights different logics. Education is no longer limited to the acquisition of academic knowledge. Skills known as soft skills have become essential to thrive and take their place in an increasingly complex and interconnected society. Their various designations, their overlapping and the emergence of certain soft skills make the concept of soft skills a complex one.