Assessing soft skills of undergraduate students: framework for improving competitiveness, innovation and competence of higher education graduates

Research shows that soft skills, such as teamwork capability, creativity, time management, problem solving skills, communication skills, conflict management, leadership skills, cultural awareness, information management skills and work ethic, are the affective skills most demanded by industries/companies of today's entry-level employees. However, it is this same set of skills that industries claim are still not adequately teaching to the students in the higher education. The research was aimed at identifying life skill formation based teaching and learning model and concept by integrating and synergizing hard skills and soft skills. The research results in the mapped soft skill mastery profile of the students that was at the high category of 72,24%. The mapping will be used as the basic reference for the teaching and learning model developed in this research.