Food for thought after BITS-Pilani Conference

The international conference on Soft Skills at BITS, Pilani has definitely given lot of food for thought. Theoritically soft skills looks very easy, however metamorphosing those into practice, that too for a diverse target audience like students on one hand and employees on the other calls for lot of soul searching.Imparting soft skills therefore has to be a blend of on job and classroom training mode.The biggest fallacy most of the soft skills trainer is to believe that soft skills can be taught in the classroom alone. While the theoritical reinforcement can be done in a classroom set-up, the practical implications can be understood only if it is followed up with the practical illustrations.On job mode may be easier for working executives, but the same style can be also be simulated in academic institutes, with active participation from all and sundry in the institute.
Soft skills to be effective for a student needs a 360 degree model which I have developed which calls for active participation of all stakeholders.The stakeholders are classified as direct and indirect and their nomenclature changes with the changing times. There are various parameters on which the stakeholders are classified as direct and indirect which in turn assigns them a role in the whole soft skills training process.