Key competencies /Soft skills/
The key competencies are knowledge and skills needed for the realization in a business environment. They are the basis of every person’s confidence and competitiveness.
The development of each person in a career path requires acquired hard skills in the specialty and skills that accompany the realization in any business activity.
Hard skills are often acquired during secondary or higher education or through specific training. These include competences to perform a specific activity, digital skills, use of foreign languages or skills to work with a specific machine.
Along with the acquired knowledge and skills in the specialty or professionally every human being works in a team. Even if they work alone, they communicate with the people for whom their products or service are intended. The skills that make us confident in doing the right thing, winning positions, being able to present our idea, being organized, winning people and inspiring them, showing high emotional intelligence are those invisible skills that we carry with us regardless of the industry in which we work and the position we hold. These are skills known as Soft skills.
In today’s world and labour market, employers are looking for professionals who have both well-developed soft skills and key competences in the business environment.
The graph below shows the predominance of soft skills over hard ones as an advantage in a job well done.
Ratio of hard and soft skills in terms of quality of work
Soft skills are seen as personal characteristics that are acquired during life and career. For example, the skills for effective communication, teamwork and responsibility, creativity and initiative, flexibility and adaptability are key soft skills that many employers look for in job applicants.
These skills, together with some competencies required for each industry, make them a Key competence category.
Such key competencies are competencies for effective presentation, business skills, business etiquette and business correspondence, project management and negotiation skills, leadership skills.
Possession of these competencies and developed soft skills make some people more successful than others.
Key competencies provide an extremely competitive advantage and confidence to achieve personal career and/or business plan.
