Abstract:
The Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) has intensified the need for the workforce to perform competitively. To facilitate the workforce in optimizing job quality and productivity, employers must use the training program as a strategic approach to improve their workforce performance. However, to meet the challenges of the IR4.0 technical skills training alone is insufficient because soft skills training, such as communication, interpersonal, and collaborative skills training are required to ensure the workforce fully optimize their performance. Thus, the IR4.0 has given a new impetus to soft skills training transformation and that it must play a more prominent role in the workplace. This can be achieved when the transfer of soft skills knowledge learned in training is satisfactorily applied back into the workplace. Therefore, this paper attempts to highlight the significant role of soft skills training in the workplace in the era of IR4.0. This was conducted primarily based on findings by reviewing a comprehensive review of literature from local and global perspectives. The findings from the literature have revealed that soft skills play an important role in developing the workforce able to produce quality work and high productivity performance. Given the current competitive working environment, researchers have concurred that soft skills abilities are critical for the workforce to optimize their potentials as soft skills have been suggested to have a strong influence on an individual's job performance. The conclusion from the literature will facilitate to highlight the critical soft skills needed in the workplace and an informed approach to improve soft skills training. Moreover, understanding the factors that influence soft skills transfer of training will enable improvement in the application of soft skills back into the workplace. This, in turn, could shed some light on future research.
Page(s):
133-137
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Science International, Volume: 32, Issue: 2, Year: 2020
Keywords:
training
,
Workforce
,
IR40
,
Soft skills
,
Transfer of training