Introduction

Soft skills are a large list of over-professional competencies that have recently become an increasingly popular topic of discussion every year (Rao 2010; Claxton et al. 2016). One indicator is the World Economic Forum’s report The Future of Jobs (World Economic Forum [WEF] 2020) highlights the importance of soft skills in the work environment. In this survey of jobs and skills for the future, soft skills such as critical thinking, analysis and problem solving, and self-management skills such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility are presented as the most visible and sought-after skills in the run-up to 2025.

Over time, people require new behavioral strategies for successful professional realization, which predetermines the need to form universal skills in future specialists. The soft skills system includes a number of basic personality characteristics:

  • Skills related to setting and realizing goals and objectives of professional and other activities (e.g., time management, planning, critical thinking, creativity)

  • Adaptive skills (e.g., stress tolerance)

  • Communication skills (related to presentation of ideas, e.g., public speech)

  • Social skills (e.g., persuasion, leadership, motivation, etc.) (Rao 2010; Marin-Zapata et al. 2022).

Following this growing trend, much emphasis is made on soft skills awareness and training both at companies (Balcar 2016; Duhigg 2016; Davidson et al. 2017; Zuo et al. 2018) and educational institutions (Stewart et al. 2016; Hirsch 2017; Riyanti et al. 2017; Caeiro-Rodríguez et al. 2021; Hendriana et al. 2022). Various formats are used for training, both classical team training (online and offline) and alternative ways, such as learning game forms (Dell’Aquila et al. 2016; Viviers et al. 2016). The availability of such different studies on this topic demonstrates the interest in soft skills, including the importance of having such competences in university graduates who are simultaneously applicants for their first job.

However, despite the growing interest in the development of the field of soft skills teaching and learning itself, researchers have questions. One of them is about the possibility of correct assessment of the development of these skills. Hence, for example in Stephen Gibb’s study (Gibb 2014) it is described that soft skill assessment is widely practiced but there is little research or evidence on how well this assessment is done. This problem is related to the fact that the teaching of soft skills is recent. Another problem arising from the same reason is to be convinced of the necessity of conducting such classes and their effectiveness for a person in the context of their professional activity. In search of an answer to this question, the authors have met with a lot of foreign experience, devoted to the fact that there is an inseparable connection between teaching soft skills and successful employment (Nickson et al. 2012; Majid et al. 2019; Succi and Canovi 2020; Asefer and Abidin 2021; Yong and Ling 2022).

After this experience for us, as researchers of the soft skills training necessity, the following question arose – will the above experience be successfully confirmed in our work as well. In other words, in the practice of hiring students from ITMO University, where soft skills courses are taught, is the possession of such over-professional competencies really important?

Being an institution of higher education embracing best professional practices from all over the globe, ITMO University offers soft skills training to its students since 2018, as well as conducting research on the topic (Arlashkina and Romanenko 2021). Available subjects include management-related disciplines (effective team management, business communication, etc.), personal performance (time management, emotional intelligence, public speaking, etc.) as well as management and internationalization of research. One of the latest works in this area is an experiment devoted to a new format of learning – microlearning. In this study it was shown that aspects of soft skills training – theoretical basis, practical application and assessment of self and success improved after training in this format, and positive feedback was received (Romanenko et al. 2023). As the soft skills training group created new courses and learning materials, we relied heavily on the personal experience and judgment of the instructors. In 2022 the authors of the research have decided to support this professional judgment with practical evidence by reaching out both to the students who took the soft skills courses and the employers who accept our students to fill in entry-level positions.

There are studies that look at the application of soft skills in the workplace, such as an article on the first employment of accounting graduates in the Philippines (Diokno and Peprah 2021), which used questionnaires to do so. Another study, which also used questionnaires, was conducted to measure the impact of soft skills on employees’ innovation abilities in Indonesia (Caputo et al. 2019; Sopa et al. 2020; Ansari 2021). The results showed that soft skills, along with hard skills, have a positive and significant impact on employees’ innovation abilities, both directly and indirectly. Another study was conducted in 2020 in Malaysia, where a systematic review of soft skills in graduates was done (Noah and Abdul Aziz 2020). The paper showed that graduates lack soft skills that are highly valued by employers and the solution to the problem is supposed to involve universities and government. This study also helped to identify a problem area – the gap between the requirements and expectations of employers and the actual level of development of flexible skills among young employees.

In addition to articles, this paper was inspired by specialized books on conducting qualitative research and research designs, e. g. “Qualitative Research Designs” by John W. Creswell (Creswell 2007), “The Coding Manual For Qualitative Researchers” by Johnny Saldaña (Saldaña 2009) and “The discovery of grounded theory; strategies for qualitative research” by Barney G. Glaser and Anselm L. Strauss (Glaser and Strauss 2010). Due to these works, the authors are familiar with the methods of qualitative research in sociology, the guidelines for conducting it, and the need to confirm the hypotheses put forward in the work, which are exploratory in nature.

In addition to all of the above, and the fact that similar studies exist and the conclusion about the relationship between hiring and soft skills is not innovative, this paper has its relevance. It is related to the development of soft skills in Russia, where the training of over-professional competencies is gaining momentum, but is not widespread (Stepanova and Zeer 2019; Efimova 2021; Malykhin et al. 2021). With this work the authors want to make sure for themselves and other universities in Russia that by introducing soft skills into their programs of study the right steps are taken for students as future professionals.

Thus, the relevance of the work is not only due to the interest of both students and employers in soft skills, but also due to the opportunity to study this issue from both perspectives in the context of ITMO University and combine these points of view in one research.

Job descriptions research on “hh.ru”

The envisioned study seemed extensive and required a certain amount of development. In addition to the literature analysis briefly presented in the introduction, it was also necessary to find out which soft skills are most often required by the employer.

The project team conducted a qualitative content analysis of job positions from professional areas corresponding to ITMO University profile, published on the hh.ru recruitment platform. The purpose of the analysis was to identify the 15 most common requirements to applicants in terms of soft skills.

According to the results of the big data quantitative and content analysis of 63,273 positions, the list of soft skills, presented in Fig. 1 were in most demand. Top 3 positions turned out to be teamwork, business communication skills and organization skills.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Graph of the most demanded soft skills according to the results of the analysis.

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The project team also conducted a manual analysis of 75 positions to check the relevance of the results of big data analysis. Positions in the following spheres close to the study profiles at ITMO University were studied: information technology. engineering, ecology, science, high-tech industries. The results of manual analysis confirm the findings of big data analysis.

The results of this part of the study will be very useful for soft skills teachers so that they can introduce students to these statistics, emphasize the demand for soft skills in the market and thereby increase students’ motivation to learn. In addition, given the high demand for business communication skills, the project team plans to develop a new course in this area, previously such a discipline was not offered to students. But the most important conclusion after this part of the study was that the approach of employers to the preparation of job ads was assessed as superficial and, in general, rather careless, also a poor awareness of the needs of employers was revealed. Consequently, it is worth continuing contact with representatives of employers, to transfer the surveys and interviews of companies in the format of regular practice to help employers to realize their needs, and in some cases even to design them.

A foreign expert - Meriç Bıçakçoğlu, lecturer at Ozyegin University, Istanbul, Turkey, was also involved in the project team. The current soft skills requirements of international companies operating in Turkey were analyzed, as well as the soft skills education products available in the international market. The results of his research confirm the above-mentioned theses about the current demand for soft skills of employees and that soft skills development allows students and graduates to respond quickly and flexibly to the current challenges of today’s world. Thus, this part of the study confirmed that the educational technologies used by ITMO University to teach soft skills correspond to international best practices.

For further research, which was conducted over the span of 2021-2022 the method of manual analysis of qualitative job announcements from companies that actively cooperate with ITMO University (Biocad, EPAM, Gazpromneft, Yandex, etc.) was chosen in order to identify the most demanded soft skills. The analysis was conducted by the project team. One of the stages of this analysis was to interview representatives of these companies to find out what meaning they put into some common phrases (“communication skills”, “teamwork”, etc.). Thus, it was necessary to identify the real needs of the employer and make sure that at the courses devoted to the development of soft skills, teachers teach exactly what is useful for students later in their career.

Materials and methods

Part 1. Student opinion research

Masters students were chosen as the target audience because they typically show a higher level of maturity and are likely to have relevant work experience that they are willing to discuss in detail.

Students from all areas of educational departments that exist at the ITMO university were involved: Computer Technology and Management Department, Physics and Technology Department, Translational Information Technology Department and Life Sciences Department. Each student took a course of their choice from the following list:

  • Career Management in Science

  • Emotional Intelligence

  • Efficient Team Management

  • International Research Management Essentials

  • Life in Science: Guide for Young Researchers

  • Negotiations, Influence and Conflict Management

  • Personal Effectiveness and Time-Management

  • Personal Resources Management

  • Research Management

By giving interviews and filling in survey forms students were requested to reflect on the results of their soft skills training and on applying these results at the workplace. Communication with company representatives acted as a mirror in this research since we asked them to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of entry-level specialists and to highlight potential areas where we should redesign or enhance their training.

Interviews were conducted between March and the rest of 2022 through December as respondents became involved. Respondents were recruited in several ways. The first was mailings to a database of students who had taken a soft skills course. Another way to obtain respondents was through personal contact with soft skills tutors to ask students in communication channels (e.g., group chats) to participate in the study. In addition, links to the surveys were published in ITMO University’s internal media. The questionnaire itself was designed to form a more representative sample: it was important for the authors to include students who had necessarily taken a soft skills course, as well as those who work in the field of specialization studied at ITMO University.

After completing the questionnaire there was an opportunity to leave their contact information for a more in-depth part of the research - the interview. The interview was conducted as a remote meeting, lasting about 30–40 min. The interviews were conducted by the authors and teaching assistants of soft skills courses. During the meeting, transcription of the interview was done and then content analysis and coding took place.

In order to find out the satisfaction of master’s students with the soft skills training, as well as their experience in applying the acquired soft skills in the workplace, the project team interviewed 23 (43.48% female, 56.52% male) master’s students (interview guide with research questions is available in the additional information). According to the results of the initial interviews, it was decided to expand the target audience for the study to include 1st year undergraduate students who had just completed their soft skills training. Many of these students recently received their first employment experience in their specialty and can describe it in detail and very vividly.

For a more in-depth study of the above-mentioned topics, a questionnaire for students, subsequently designed using EnjoySurvey service (Enjoy Survey, Web Service 2023) (the questionnaire is available in additional information to the article), was compiled in cooperation with ITMO Center for University Research and Monitoring (CURM).

Qualitative data analysis was conducted for 23 interviews with the help of specialists from the Center for University Research and Monitoring (CURM). The method of data analysis was thematic coding in a specialized program MaxQDA.

Part 2. Employer opinion research

Recruitment of employer respondents was for the most part through personal connections of the university and soft skills teachers with suitable people for the study, namely specialists in the fields that are relevant to the employment.

The ITMO University Career Center was also involved, helping to contact alumni employers and other university-affiliated companies for interviews, people from which were willing to participate in the study.

To find out the experience of employers’ interaction with students and graduates of ITMO graduate programs, employers’ expectations from students and graduates of graduate programs, features of adaptation of entry-level specialists, 20 interviews (60% female respondents, 40% male) were conducted with representatives of companies (mainly HR managers) from the following areas: IT, HR consulting and telecommunications (interview guide with research questions is available in additional materials to the article).

For more in-depth study of the above-mentioned topics, a questionnaire for companies-employers is being developed in cooperation with CURM. Once the content is agreed upon, the questionnaire will be uploaded to EnjoySurvey.

Qualitative data analysis was conducted with the help of specialists from the Center for University Research and Monitoring, for which such a method of data analysis as thematic coding in a specialized program MaxQDA was applied.

Results

Part 1. Student opinion research

A preliminary qualitative data analysis was conducted by the project team, which revealed the following:

  1. 1.

    Students indicated that the “soft skills” training was helpful to them, and they applied these skills in their personal lives (14 respondents) or in the workplace (13 respondents);

  2. 2.

    Among the positives of the training, students highlighted teamwork tasks (5 respondents), live communication (4 respondents), informative presentations (2 students), and instruction in English (2 students). Possible points for improvement: solving organizational problems with the choice of course, format and language of instruction (5 respondents), shortcomings of modular training system (5 respondents), questions to the professionalism of the instructor (3 respondents);

  3. 3.

    Among the skills that were voiced by students as a request from employers: communication skills (6 respondents), teamwork skills (5 respondents), leadership skills (4 respondents), critical thinking (3 respondents);

  4. 4.

    Adjustment time varies from student to student, highlighting periods of up to 1 month (3 respondents), 1–3 months (8 respondents), and up to 6 months (8 respondents). The student’s communication skills and work format (online/offline) are noted as factors influencing the adjustment period. Typical problems of adaptation are difficulty working in online format (4 respondents), fear to ask colleagues for advice/help (4 respondents), discomfort due to lack of professional knowledge (3 respondents), difficulty in understanding the corporate culture of the organization (3 respondents);

  5. 5.

    Most students (14 respondents) noted that the process of adaptation was accompanied by a supervisor or mentor. 8 respondents had additional soft skills training at the expense of the company. Including 4 respondents had online courses on communication skills, 3 respondents had courses on time management, 2 respondents were trained to work in a team;

  6. 6.

    Students and graduates show high readiness for additional training of soft skills, including at their own expense. Among the popular requests were: public speaking skills (4 respondents), conflict management (4 respondents), critical thinking (3 respondents), communication skills (3 respondents), leadership skills (3 respondents);

  7. 7.

    Most students are willing to spend up to 4 h per week on supplemental instruction (11 respondents). Six respondents are ready to pay less than 5000 rubles per course, another four students expressed willingness to pay between 10,000 and 30,000 rubles. The most popular formats are the hybrid format (3 respondents) and access to pre-recorded online courses (3 respondents). When choosing a provider of educational services, students are guided by the personality of the instructor (5 respondents), feedback from other learners (4 respondents), the brand of the provider (3 respondents), and the opportunity to get acquainted with the training program (3 respondents).

Figure 2a–c, e shows part of the visualization of the results of the student survey conducted using the EnjoySurvey service.

Fig. 2: Graphs of the distribution of responses to the survey questions (Student Opinion Research part).
figure 2

a Which soft skills would you like to get additionally trained in? b How long was your workplace adaptation period? c How was the additional soft skills training conducted? d In case you need additional soft skills training, would you look for educational opportunities by yourself?

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Important conclusions were drawn from the results of the student survey. The first has to do with the difficulties students face when enrolling in the soft skills courses – emphasizing the importance of creating micro-modules and forming courses that cover several disciplines at once. This conclusion was made by the fact that the proposed solution could facilitate both a more versatile development of “soft skills” and a deeper understanding of what students would like to study.

The typical difficulties that students experience in the process of adaptation at the new workplace and the requests they are voiced by the employer have been identified, which further reinforce the need for a course on business communication. With the successful implementation of this course at ITMO, it is possible to enter the open market with this course. Moreover, the budget and number of hours students are willing to spend learning new skills underscores the need to invest in mobile learning because it best meets the criteria voiced by students.

Part 2. Employer opinion research

A preliminary qualitative analysis of the data, conducted as in the part of the study with students, revealed several important aspects:

  1. 1.

    Among the skills inherent to successful candidates, company representatives identified communication skills (18 respondents), critical thinking and argumentation skills (14 respondents), learning and information handling skills (13 respondents), teamwork skills (12 respondents), leadership skills (11 respondents), negotiation skills (8 respondents), public speaking skills (8 respondents), emotion management and stress tolerance (8 respondents);

  2. 2.

    Among the typical problems of university education in the context of Soft Skills, respondents identified a low level of communication skills among students/graduates (13 respondents), insufficient attention to soft skills development in general (6 respondents), undeveloped time management skills (6 respondents), lack of emotional intelligence skills (4 respondents), lack of learning skills through engaged observation (4 respondents).

  3. 3.

    Companies train entry level professionals in the following soft skills: public speaking, argumentation skills, storytelling, negotiation, communication, time management, emotional intelligence, conflict management, planning and management skills.

  4. 4.

    Respondents noted that companies allocate a budget for training, favoring hard skills training, allocating a certain amount per employee, but striving to address training issues internally, without outsourcing. Specifically, 12 respondents organize training by company employees or an internal trainer, and only 4 respondents said they use an outside contractor. 7 respondents noted that their company creates its own educational courses.

  5. 5.

    Respondents note that companies seek to implement an internal training system, including through their corporate universities, emphasizing the transition to online.

  6. 6.

    Regarding the criteria for selecting a provider of educational services, the informants noted that the following are important for them: feedback (company brand, recommendations), experience with similar companies of the customer, personal brand of the trainer, the openness of the program description, its structure, specific results, knowledge of the specific industry of the customer, cost.

Figure 3a–c, e shows part of the visualization of the results from the employers survey conducted using the EnjoySurvey service.

Fig. 3: Graphs of the distribution of responses to the survey questions (Employer Opinion Research part).
figure 3

a What is the general level of soft skills development for entry-level specialists? b Which soft skills are most developed among entry-level specialists? c Which soft skills related factor matter most in entry-level specialist promotion? d Which soft skills does your company additionally train entry-level specialists in?

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The conclusions drawn during the work with company representatives (HRs) also provide food for thought. First, given the complexity of employers’ requests, it was determined that the focus on the development of micro-modules that allow learning several soft skills in one course is correct.

Also, given the pronounced emphasis on the lack of communication skills among entry-level professionals, the focus on creating a course on business communication and the possible implementation of this course as a “program of additional professional education” is correct. In the 2023 winter semester a developed micro-learning dedicated to modern business communication course was started. In addition, ITMO University is able to meet the educational needs of employer companies in the field of soft skills training and meets the wishes that companies voice to providers of educational services. Possible ways of cooperation in the provision of paid educational services require further study.

Discussion & conclusions

The research on the experience of graduates and the labor market in Russia and, in particular, in the Northwestern Federal District was conducted. At the first stage of the study, using qualitative analysis and content analysis of vacancies posted on recruiting platforms (e.g. headhunter.ru), the current requirements of leading Russian employers for employees’ flexible competencies were identified, as well as trends of appearance of a large number of different soft skills in these requirements. Then an in-depth study of available Russian and foreign studies of the future labor market and competencies required by employees of intellectual professions in the future was carried out. The main tool was interviews with key business partners in the industry about the real situation with the development of flexible skills among Russian university graduates who come to practice and start their career. The problem area was identified - the gap between the requirements and expectations of employers and the actual level of development of flexible skills of young employees. Also, a survey of the students who were trained in soft skills disciplines in the master’s program and found a job was conducted.

The results of this study show employers’ interest in having soft skills of their applicants correlate with many research in the field (Nickson et al. 2012; Succi and Canovi 2020; Asefer and Abidin 2021; Diokno and Peprah 2021). These reports show that employers’ interest in soft skills is in line with many studies in this area, as well as the gap in soft skills education and the desire of companies to obtain employees with these competencies. The conclusions that were drawn regarding the work done with students are also similar to other studies (Balcar 2016; Caeiro-Rodríguez et al. 2021) that indicate the need to develop soft skills training programs. Thus, the experience of other researchers is confirmed in our work. This shows that the development of soft skills in Russian universities is really justified and necessary from the point of view of both employers and students. According to all results of the three stages of the work conclusions were made on the development of the study and the application of the results. In general, it was shown that ITMO University chooses the right trajectory of training and development of soft skills in students, and future employers appreciate this experience in direct work.

Based on the results with the students, further planned work will include from 1 to 2 focus groups with students and graduates (a maximum of 8–10 people in each group are expected to participate in focus groups). In addition, from 3 to 5 interviews are planned with students who have taken soft skills courses in 2022. Of particular interest are students who have taken the new microlearning format introduced for courses such as “Emotional Intelligence” and “Study Skills”.

Further work with employers will consist, as in the previous case, of conducting one or two focus groups (approximately 5 people in each group are expected to participate considering time constraints in the professional environment) with representatives of employing companies and conducting three to five interviews with representatives of employing companies. It is also planned, if possible. to develop training materials for representatives of companies, to test them and get their feedback. Based on the results of interviews with representatives of companies, a pool of respondents who agreed to test educational materials of ITMO University was formed.

The results of the present research are supposed to assist researchers in expanding the portfolio of soft skills courses, promoting new learning formats (such as microlearning, which is the subject of another study by ITMO University (Romanenko et al. 2023)) and better meeting the educational needs of ITMO University students and of the professional community in general.