The soft skills of a person refer to personalities, behaviour, interpersonal, creativity and problem solving abilities. A part of such skills contribute to their own wellbeing in personal relationship and happiness. Studies have shown that when people are trained in such soft skills, their efficiency increases to such a degree that they take responsibility, think creatively, have improved problem solving ability, increased dependability, manage customers with a smile and look after their own wellbeing.

Today’s business environment has become more competitive and complex due to various factors. A study over 52 professions in United States has identified soft skills as the major competency in nearly all professions, even in technical work environments. Another study of graduates aiming for highly skilled jobs identified the five top soft skills as: leadership, teamwork, decision-making, problem solving and time management. And these are also universal skills. In a study in 2017, it was found that ninety four percent of the recruiters believed that an employee with soft skills has a better chance of being promoted.

The modern work place has changed dramatically in the last two decades and is very interpersonal even with technology and the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is widely accepted in the industry that soft skills are hard to automate. The world economy has now moved to a service economy and increasingly customers and clients demand soft skills from their suppliers. Another benefit of soft skills is that they help employees to adapt to changing circumstances at work and in their personal lives.

SOFTPOWER is a skill development programme based on new thinking for the new challenges. It provides the fundamentals of the soft skills which employees will build on in their team environment to increase job satisfaction and wellbeing.