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Journal of Digital Sociohumanities
ISSN: 3032-7865
Website : https://jds.unand.ac.id
Email : jds@hum.unand.ac.id | digitalsociohumanities@hum.unand.ac.id
16
Creative Commons Licence CC-BY-NC
Vol. 2 No. 1 2025
From Campus to Career: The Inuence of Soft Skills on
Employability
Rachid Elkhayma1, Mohamed Ezzaidi2
1So Skills and Communication, ENSAM, Casablanca, Morocco
2Communication, Semlalia School of Science, Marrakech, Morocco
Article information Abstract
DOI : 10.25077/jds.2.1.16-28.2025
Correspondence :
rachidelkhayma@gmail.com
World economies have become more globalized and interconnected, with new
advanced aspects of employment that are highly automated and technological.
This leads to new work requirements that have rapidly been evolving since
the beginning of the twenty-rst century. Performing in such a competitive
environment necessitates qualied job candidates who are not only competent in
hard knowledge but also in soft skills. This forces employers to look for graduates
with strong interpersonal and problem-solving skills, and a signicant ability to
manage various tasks and missions. In this context, this paper investigates the
status of soft skills, students’ and employers’ attitudes towards them, and the
possible merit and / or insignicance attributed to these skills for the student’s
current educational and later professional endeavor. 120 Engineering and
Science students from Hassan II and Cadi Ayyad Universities and 15 Casablanca
and Rabat-based companies participated in the study. The ndings reveal that
both students and employers give greater importance to soft skills as essential
requirements for job nding and employment success.
Submission Track
Submission : July 12, 2024
Final Review : September 02, 2024
Accepted : September 06, 2024
Available online : September 10, 2024
Keywords
Employability, soft skills, employers,
students, graduates, job market
INTRODUCTION
The dynamic landscape of the business world, characterized by intense competition and rapid
evolution, underscores the need for a workforce that is skilled in both technical prociency and eective
communication skills (Brown et al., 2003). Employers in today’s labor market recognize the value of
individuals who demonstrate prociency in both hard and soft skills (Deepa & Seth, 2013; Stewart et al.,
2016). While knowledge and technical expertise remain highly valued, the ability to solve problems in
a team setting is considered equally important for job security and career advancement (Schein, 1996).
Research suggests that graduates who rely solely on technical training may face challenges in the workplace
or even termination due to poor communication or ethical behavior (Tulgan, 2015). Rick Stephens,
Boeing’s vice president of human resources, underscores the importance of considering soft skills in
hiring, emphasizing that an exclusive focus on hard skills can lead to the termination of employees with
inadequate soft skills (Gordon, 2005). Employers agree that a harmonious blend of technical expertise
and eective communication and teamwork skills is essential for success in today’s job market.
The ubiquity of soft skills is underscored by Boukar (2021), founder of Soft Skills Maroc, who notes
that over 75% of jobs in the U.S. labor market require particular soft skills. These skills include eective
listening, clear communication, problem solving, reading comprehension, self-assessment, understanding
others’ reactions, coordination, decision-making, time management, and written communication skills
(Boukar, 2021). In a study by Hairi et al. (2011) on employers’ perceptions of power skills in Malaysia,
both local and multinational companies agree on the importance of communication, critical thinking,
teamwork, project management, decision-making, and problem solving as key generic skills (Hairi et al.,
2011). The French Sapien Think-Thank Institute’s 2021 project on transferable skills and employability
identied a high demand for these skills in the French labor market (Tison, 2021). In line with these
Journal of Digital Sociohumanities (Vol. 2 No. 1 2025)
17
ndings, IBM France emphasizes the importance of behavioral skills in recruitment criteria, giving equal
importance to soft skills and technical skills. Laurent Vronski, Director of EVRON, agrees with the
ndings of the Sapien Institute and points out that 90% of recruitment failures are due to a lack of these
skills, underlining the costly impact on companies.
In the context of an evolving work environment, as in Morocco, this research explores the nuanced
interplay between soft skills and employability. Several studies have been carried out in Morocco on
the importance of soft skills in education and how to advance them. To the best of our knowledge,
exploring employers’ opinions and perceptions of soft skills and provide them as tangible insights for
science and engineering students and graduates looking for job opportunities is an area of study that still
lacks research in Moroccan academia. The present study examines employers’ views of soft skills, their
attitudes towards them and their importance, if there is any, in the Moroccan labor market, and whether
they use them in job interviews. It also examines engineering and science students’ perceptions of soft
skills and how important they may be to their current educational performance and future career success.
In order to explore these areas, the following research questions are addressed in this paper:
1. What soft skills are most valued by employers?
2. How important are soft skills to employers?
3. What is the current level of awareness and understanding among students of the importance of
soft skills in relation to employability and education?
4. How do students perceive the importance of soft skills compared to hard skills?
As denitions, the term “soft skills” originated in the late 1960s in the U.S. Army to refer to skills
that transcend technology and encompass diverse qualities (Litecky, et al., 2004), such as leadership, team
inspiration, and strategic decision-making. These skills require essential social and cognitive qualities
that can make them critical (Nye Jr., 2008). Soft skills are invaluable personal attributes that underpin
interpersonal interactions, including eective communication, emotional intelligence, teamwork,
leadership, and temporal dexterity (Baker, 1970). Various synonymous labels such as interpersonal skills,
leadership skills, and competencies aligned with the demands of the twenty-rst century have emerged in
academic discourse (Touati, 2023). Empirical research substantiates the eects of aptitude in soft skills,
facilitating the understanding of personal and professional challenges (Carnevale, 1990). Conversely,
hard skills refer to specic competencies that are in line with job roles (Badawy, 1995; Morgeson et al.,
2005), and are acquired through formal education, experiential training, or through personal eorts. The
contemporary emphasis on diverse workplace issues underscores the growing dominance of soft skills
over hard skills (Brunello & Schlotter, 2011). Although not really superior, soft skills remain endowed with
true value, prompting a scholarly tendency to prioritize them over technical competencies (Levasseur,
2013).
Historically, engineering and science schools around the word, from the earliest educational systems
until the 1970s, focused primarily on technology and science, neglecting the humanities and social
sciences (Shuman et al., 2005). The humanistic approach that emerged during this period prompted a shift
that incorporated the humanities and social sciences into engineering and science institutions. This shift
emphasized the development of oral and written communication skills alongside technical knowledge,
preparing students to express themselves eectively (Richards, 2005). The goal of this inclusion was to
equip students to work and communicate in diverse, multicultural business and scientic environments,
which is critical for collaborating and learning from technological innovations across nations in the eld
of engineering.
Governments and researchers around the world have endorsed this shift, advocating for the
integration of vocational skills into engineering and science education. In Europe, initiatives such as the
Bologna Process and the ERASMUS project, in place since the late 1980s, promote lifelong training and
Rachid Elkhayma, Mohamed Ezzaidi
18
mobility to acquire skills for the labor market (Cinque, 2016). ERASMUS has a signicant impact on
soft skills, especially teamwork and intercultural communication, accounting for up to 41% of its overall
mission (Enders et al.,, 2011). The Bologna Process emphasizes the creation of a transversal link between
education and employers by aligning marketable skills with disciplinary knowledge to meet the demands
of the labour market (Bourke, 2005).
In the early 1990s, there was growing recognition in the United States of the need to reform
engineering education by incorporating social, environmental, historical, and global perspectives in
addition to technical knowledge (Shuman et al., 2005). The National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
and the Accreditation Council for Engineering and Technology advocated for the integration of soft skills,
emphasizing attributes such as teamwork, systems thinking, and creative design (Murphy et al., 2013). In
Japan, criticism in 1963 led to educational reforms in the late 1980s that aligned education with the needs
of industry by training graduates in skills such as autonomy, persuasiveness, creativity, and a spirit of
challenge (Negishi, 1993, cited in Doyon, 2001). China’s rapid social and economic development since the
1980s led to the recognition of the need for greater skill integration in higher education (Morgan & Wu,
2011). This shift was driven by employers seeking graduates with social skills such as communication,
leadership, and empathy. Educational reforms in 2001 aimed to develop learners who could think critically
and solve real-world problems (Rayn, 2011).
In Morocco, higher education traditionally prioritized knowledge acquisition over the development
of soft skills. Reforms since the early 2000s have aimed to meet the needs of the labor market with a
greater emphasis on hard skills. However, the 2015-2030 Strategic Vision recognizes the importance
of incorporating soft skills. This includes measures to improve communication skills, such as hiring
language teachers and improving English prociency through English language streams and prociency
requirements for doctorate students. The question is whether this reform has really started to help students
develop their communication and employability skills.
These changes represent a recognition of the importance of soft skills in preparing graduates for the
labor market, and reect a shift toward a holistic approach to education that aims to equip graduates with
both hard and soft skills for better employability opportunities.
METHOD
Study Design
The current study is mainly quantitative. The data collection instrument comprises two questionnaires
with almost all questions as closed-ended ones, except three, which are open-ended. The purpose for
including some open-ended survey items is to generate more information through giving respondents
the choice to express their thoughts freely. The rationale for prioritizing quantitative data is to provide
sucient information about students’ and employers’ opinions of soft skills. The study also sets to explore
employers’ perceptions of and attitudes towards soft skills, and how crucial they may be in the job market
for both recruiters and graduates. Besides, it investigates engineering and science students’ opinions
of them, as well as the potential value, if there is any, attributed to these skills for the students’ current
educational and later professional endeavor.
Participants
The sampling population consists of students and employers. 120 Engineering and Science students
from ENSAM-Casablanca and Semlalia School of Science at Qadi Ayyad University in Marrakech took
part in the study. Twenty employers represented by big companies based in Casablanca and Rabat regions,
Morocco also participated by responding to our questionnaire.
Procedure
The researchers contacted as many employers-participants as they could, and they ended up with 20
Journal of Digital Sociohumanities (Vol. 2 No. 1 2025)
19
completed questionnaires. These participants were selected based on a convenience sampling technique
given the fact that some of them were available at the research sites, whereas others were deemed accessible
by the researchers using emails and work phone numbers. Moreover, the researchers used the SPSS
statistical package version 20 to analyze the data obtained from the employers’ and recruiters’ surveys.
RESULTS AND FINDINGS
The ndings presented in this section are based on the data collected from employers and students.
The discussion is conducted in the context of the research questions highlighted in the introduction.
It has been found that the most valued soft skills by employers are communication skills (80% of the
respondents’ answers), emotional intelligence (60%), adaptability (60%), listening skills (50%), and time
management (45%). The ability to work in groups, have condence in oneself, and solve problems are
similarly important for them, as shown in Figure 1. This indicates that they recognize the value placed on
these skills in the job market. They also value candidates who can express ideas clearly, listen actively,
and communicate with a variety of audiences. For them, the ability to communicate eectively both orally
and in writing is essential. They also recognize the signicance of emotional intelligence in fostering
positive workplace relationships and resolving disputes, which includes self-awareness, empathy, and the
ability to deal with social situations because, as one respondent notes, “we are not going to hire robots.”
Besides, eective time management for them, with a percentage of 45% of participants’ answers, is
a highly valued skill that candidates should acquire. The ability to prioritize tasks, meet deadlines, and
handle multiple responsibilities are all essential components of this skill set. It allows them “to thrive in
a collaborative work environment and to adapt to the changing challenges of the professional world,” as
another respondent noted. Adaptability is also crucial in such a rapidly changing business environment.
60 percent of employers voted for it. They are looking for candidates who can adapt, learn quickly, and
remain exible. Moreover, they place a high value on employees who can work eectively in a team,
oer innovative ideas, and collaborate with colleagues. In a team-based work environment, “the ability to
build positive relationships and manage conicts is essential,” says another respondent.
Therefore, the value employers give to soft skills is undeniably vital, and whilst technical
qualications are necessary, the mastery of soft skills often determines graduates’ ability to apply their
knowledge in real-life situations, and create a positive and productive work environment. As one employer
explained, “the diploma is not enough to have better productivity”; this is why a signicant number of
employers view soft skills as critical to long-term productivity, career success, and the ability to adapt to
constantly evolving job requirements. In addition, as workplaces are becoming more and more diverse
and collaborative, the importance of soft skills in fostering successful communication and teamwork is
increasing. This seems to be remarkably evident in employers’ opinions, as illustrated in Table 1, wherein
95% of them share agreement and 60% reveal strong agreement.
Fig. 1. According to employers, what are the most important soft skills in recruitment?
Rachid Elkhayma, Mohamed Ezzaidi
20
Table 1. I believe soft skills are important for my employees.
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid I strongly agree 13 65.0 65.0 65.0
I agree 630.0 30.0 95.0
I’m not sure 1 5.0 5.0 100.0
Total 20 100.0 100.0
We have also discovered that almost all recruiters are keen to ask candidates questions to nd out
about their self-perception of such must-have skills (Figure 2). Almost all of them “always” seek to assess
interviewees’ soft knowledge. One of the rst things they consider when hiring engineers, for instance,
is how well they communicate and how emotionally intelligent they are. These and other competencies
enable these engineering or science students to deal with a variety of professional challenges and solve
dierent problems and situations they may encounter once they start the job. In addition, most employers
state that the priority today is for performance skills. This perspective and others conrm similar ones
found in the literature, and is consistent with the existing body of research on these transferable skills
(Heckman & Kautz, 2012; Dixon et al., 2010; Schulz, 2008; de Campos et al., 2020; Itani & Srour, 2016).
They actually reiterate the increasing attention given to soft skills in job interviews. As cited in the
review, there are many reasons why companies prioritize professional skills over technical ones, and
we can summarize them in an international recruiter’s quote that reads: “We hire for hard skills; we
re for soft skills” (Jacobson-Lundeberg, 2013, p. 26). This meaningfully loaded speech illustrates that
these skills are not only conspicuously vital for employment, but also for maintaining and advancing a
professional career.
Additionally, many employers (45 percent of them agree with the target question) arm that they
cannot hire a candidate unless he or she shows convincing interpersonal potential (Table 2). As companies
face erce competition, they tend to attract skilled graduates who can help spread the company’s reputation
and contribute to the development of its productivity. In addition, employers’ eorts to make prots and
expand their businesses lead them to emphasize the need for interpersonal skills in job applications
and interviews. Such requirements underscore the positive impact these skills can have on employee
eectiveness. Achieving eciency requires that engineers (a) be willing to work in teams and collaborate
with colleagues, (b) demonstrate that they can properly lead other group members in crucial moments, (c)
act quickly and wisely in an emergency, (d) manage time accurately to meet project deadlines, and so on.
For these and other reasons, companies insist on soft skills because of their paramount necessity for both
the growth of job seekers and the business at large. However, this insistence cannot ignore the equal value
ascribed to hard skills, which are similarly crucial, and this can be validated by the 35% of participants
who showed uncertainty and the 15% who revealed disagreement. To create an unequivocal balance,
Chou (2013) rightly argues that if hard skills can allow us to qualify for jobs, life skills are highly likely
to pave the way for us to grow.
Fig. 2. When recruiting, how often do you ask graduates about soft skill?
Journal of Digital Sociohumanities (Vol. 2 No. 1 2025)
21
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid I strongly agree 1 5.0 5.0 5.0
I agree 9 45.0 45.0 50.0
I’m not sure 735.0 35.0 85.0
I disagree 315.0 15.0 100.0
Total 20 100.0 100.0
Table 2. Employers do not hire graduates who are not good at soft skills
Moreover, in job interviews, it can be argued that employers are not only seeking technically procient
candidates, but also those who can deliver a motivational speech and present a convincing performance
in French. The target graduates are the ones who can manage their emotions, adapt quickly to dierent
work environments, communicate eectively with workers and colleagues, and speak French uently.
This emphasis on French shows that it eectively holds a prestigious position as the main language of
employment. It still ranks higher than English even though the latter is the world’s number one language
for engineering, science and technology. One of the reasons is that French is the main language of
instruction that these graduates and their employers had at university. They were taught in French, had to
use French in curricular and extracurricular activities, and graduated in French. Their employers, in turn,
conduct most of their business in French. As a result, they need a French-speaking employee even if he /
she may have little English or little or no Arabic, as shown in Figure 1 above wherein 30% of employers
preferred French to English (20%) and Arabic (0%).
There are several other reasons why French is so dominant in the job market. In terms of education,
French is the main language of instruction in scientic and technical institutions of higher education.
French schools, in turn, have a good reputation as they are believed to provide quality education. They
are mostly attended by the elite, as their tuition fees are above the Moroccan standard of living, and this,
among other things, makes them well-established and prestigious. Economically, since the Moroccan
economy is historically linked to many French companies operating in the country, local and international
companies seek French-speaking employees to enable communication with French-speaking clients and
partners. Knowledge of the French language is therefore seen as a key tool that signicantly enhances
job opportunities. Politically and diplomatically, French is indispensable in government and diplomatic
positions, and opens new opportunities for entry into these elds. In many international conferences and
events, Moroccan ocials are more likely to use French as their formal means of communication.
Furthermore, it has been observed that evaluating candidates’ soft skills during job interviews
is a high priority for recruiters. In their search for qualied personnel, employers consider assessing
graduates’ power skills with questions that determine their problem-solving abilities, level of intelligence,
communication and persuasion talents, and so on. As some employers assess graduates’ soft skills as they
do not want to “hire robots,” others insist that these skills have become “primal” and “indispensable. It
is now clear that companies are more likely to hire candidates whose interpersonal skills outweigh their
technical ones. As shown in Table 3 below, 45% of respondents conrm the fact that they can hire a
graduate who is better at soft skills than at hard knowledge, and this is supported by a signicant body
of research such as Schooley (2017), Biggers (2021), Carnochan et al. (2014), Idrus and Abdullah (2009),
and others. This reality does not conceal the fact that some job seekers can be hired based on their
hard knowledge only, or without any soft skills at all, because some might argue that. This is why an
Table 3. Can employers hire a graduate whose soft skills outweigh their hard skills?
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid Ye s 840.0 40.0 40.0
No 315.0 15.0 55.0
Maybe 9 45.0 45.0 100.0
Total 20 100.0 100.0
Rachid Elkhayma, Mohamed Ezzaidi
22
overarching skill set that combines hard skills and technical skills is often highly recommended.
As for the students-participants, it is revealed that they have considerable understanding of soft
skills and their signicance in employment. These students are exposed to various forms of power skills
in their classes and in extracurricular activities. In addition to the extensive hard skills programs they
go through, their universities promote and incorporate academic opportunities for them to develop these
employability competencies. On this basis, engineering and science students are well aware of a variety
of soft skills as indicated by Figure 3 below. The big discrepancy is that some Moroccan students think
Arabic is useful, but employers do not consider it a power skill at all. This is an essential revelation for our
students to learn, and we believe as practitioners that most of them are cognizant of the underprivileged
status of Arabic compared to the privileged one given to French and English as the leading languages
in the Moroccan job market, mainly in private companies or what is locally attributed to as the private
sector.
Whilst the importance of each power skill may vary from a student to another, the majority of students
appear to value soft skills and seek to develop them. As illustrated in Figure 4, more than 99% of students
expressed their readiness to learn about soft skills. Their awareness grows as they progress through their
studies and gain real-world and marketplace experience. The more they learn about the critical role that
soft skills play in employability, the more they realize that hard skills alone may not serve them well
in the job market. Through experience, students have realized that in order to achieve professional and
leadership growth, they need to demonstrate convincing interpersonal team-building and communication
skills with clients and partners. They have also started to understand that marketable skills contribute
not only to their personal growth as students and professionals, but also to their professional reputation
in the workplace, which can have a positive or negative impact on their image. These ndings have been
asserted in the literature by Tison from the Sapien Institute (2021), Tulgan (2015), Idrus and Abdullah
(2009), and others such as Schulz (2008) and Succi and Canovi (2020).
In this regard, the most important professional skills for engineering and science students are
communication, self-condence, teamwork, problem solving, time management, and English. For
employers, French is prioritized over English, whereas students consider English to be more important.
The reason for this disparity is that our students are more inuenced by English given its international
status as the world’s number one language in engineering and science, although French is still dominant
in many Moroccan companies, as referred to earlier.
Fig. 3. Which of the following constitutes soft skills?
Journal of Digital Sociohumanities (Vol. 2 No. 1 2025)
23
It has also been found that soft skills constitute an integral part of engineering and science students’
education. These students are truly conscious of the fact that these competencies contribute to eective
learning, academic achievement, and educational success. In this way, good communication skills help
them understand complex technical concepts, ask questions, and seek clarication inside and outside
the learning environment, whereas critical thinking and problem solving competencies enable them to
analyze and solve engineering and science problems more eectively. Equally signicant, collaboration
and teamwork abilities facilitate their group projects and enhance their learning through sharing
knowledge and information.
Students also know that soft skills are a real concern for employers nowadays, and that being
competent in them can signicantly boost their proles. They recognize that many employers are looking
for candidates with eective communication, teamwork, and problem-solving abilities, as shown in
Figure 5 below. For these students, developing such promising skills during their education can give them
a competitive advantage in the job market. In addition, engineering and science education often involves
project work and internship responsibility. As a result, students perceive some power skills like time
management, organization, and project planning to be particularly helpful in the successful completion
of such educationally and professionally demanding tasks. Eective communication and presentation
skills are similarly benecial to them to present their oral reports or projects to professors, peers, or other
audiences. Based on our classroom experience, Moroccan university engineering and science students
obviously understand the paramount contribution of these skills to their education.
Interestingly, although Moroccan universities tend to provide more academic knowledge and technical
abilities in various elds of study, the integration of soft skills in the curriculum is on the rise across
institutions and in specic departments. As many engineering and science students pointed out, Moroccan
universities are incorporating soft skills development programs into their educational practices. In this
way, they present a series of courses and various extracurricular activities aimed at developing students’
interpersonal skills. They are driven by a national and international market need for graduates who are
well equipped with these 21st century interpersonal skills. In addition, certain university departments
and faculties actually emphasize the intense importance of power skills and incorporate them into their
programs. For example, engineering and business institutions such as the National Higher School of Arts
and Crafts (ENSAM), the Higher School of Technical Education (ENSET), the Mohammadia School of
Engineers (EMI), the National School of Business and Management (ENCG) and the Hassania School of
Public Works (EHTP) always oer modules on communication, leadership, negotiation, presentation and
entrepreneurial skills in foreign languages, mainly in French and English.
Fig. 4. Do students like to learn about soft skills?
Fig. 5. Can students nd jobs with hard skills only?
Rachid Elkhayma, Mohamed Ezzaidi
24
From another side, students’ perceptions of the importance of soft skills, as opposed to hard skills,
were found to be suciently clear. Most of them consider soft skills to be essential for their current
educational path and future career. As shown in Figure 6 below, more than 90% of them believe that these
skills are important. They give priority to communication as a fundamental employability skill. They
also agree that self-condence is crucial, followed by teamwork, problem solving, time management,
adaptability, listening skills, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking. Nearly all admitted that they
enjoy learning soft skills. As they progress through the academic journey of higher education, they often
develop a greater appreciation for these skills. This appreciation grows as they join clubs and participate
in class discussions, deliver presentations, and do extracurricular activities. All of these can considerably
foster their understanding of how soft skills contribute to personal and professional growth.
In addition, many students seem to place more emphasis on the acquisition of hard skills in the early
stages of their education. This tendency is triggered by a preliminary desire to cope with the learning
diculty of these competencies in various elds of study, such as mechanical engineering, electrical
engineering, and computer science. Many of them are aware that hard knowledge is necessary to perform
technically specic tasks. This is why they tend to believe that developing this knowledge is more likely
to correlate with academic achievement and later employment success as claried in Figure 7 below. It
shows that more than 28% of students believe that they can nd jobs with hard skills only, 28.3% say the
opposite, whereas 49.2% are not sure about their real opinions. However, they quickly realize, particularly
through internships and classroom work projects, that soft skills are indispensable not only for nding
jobs, but also for interacting, collaborating, and communicating eectively in and out of the classroom. As
they approach graduation, they discover that employers are looking for candidates who possess a blend of
technical knowledge and strong interpersonal skills. Therefore, most of their perceptions change as they
mature academically, because if technical expertise is valuable for them, the ability to communicate and
work with colleagues and adapt to dierent scenarios is also essential.
Fig. 6. Do you think soft skills are important?
Along with classes on communication and soft skills, students gain a rst-hand understanding of the
importance of these abilities in the workplace through internships and in their institutions through clubs.
Their perceptions and priorities can be signicantly inuenced by this understanding. However, this
mindset does not apply to all students; there are others (28.3 % of the students-respondents) who do not
prioritize soft skills, as they presume that technical knowledge is always more valued by employers. Yet,
this category of students is a minority if compared to the majority who do understand the value granted
to employability skills in the job market.
Fig. 7. Can students nd jobs if they are good at hard skills only?
Journal of Digital Sociohumanities (Vol. 2 No. 1 2025)
25
By the same token, employers and students share the same views on the role of soft skills in the
job market. The results show that most recruiters believe that soft skills are essential in companies, and
almost all students believe that these skills are crucial for them as learners and future job candidates.
Moreover, both sides seem to agree on the most needed and required soft skills that can help graduates
nd jobs and enable them to advance in their careers. These skills are (a) communicating with colleagues,
supervisors and partners, (b) demonstrating condence and motivation in dealing with people and
managing opportunities, (c) demonstrating adaptability in dierent work environments, (d) expressing
strong emotional intelligence in building relationships, resolving conicts and improving job satisfaction,
(e) speaking foreign languages (especially English) for career development opportunities, and so on.
It is noteworthy to say that after many decades of French language dominance as the main channel
of communication in higher education and business, English has become a strong competitor. It has been
observed that both groups of participants attach paramount importance to the English language. Students
are now more aware of the fact that without English, they will unlikely succeed neither educationally nor
professionally. Most of them know that French is losing ground in Morocco, and that they need to develop
English prociency in order to start and succeed in a career. Employers, for their part, insist that students,
graduates and job applicants be able to use and communicate clearly in English, alongside French of
course, for English is the lingua franca of the global business and economy.
Remarkably, neither students nor employers seem to pay any specic attention to Arabic language
prociency. This is not surprising given the modest status of Arabic in Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics (STEM) courses at universities, and its nearly complete absence from interviews and
the work environment of private companies. Even though Arabic is considered the rst language in
Morocco, its status in practice is limited to certain elds and sectors that use Arabic as the main source
of communication or instruction. These include some media outlets, a few disciplines in the faculties of
humanities (history, Arabic, Islamic studies, philosophy, etc.), some classes in secondary and primary
education (Arabic, history, and Islamic education), and small public administrations (like municipalities).
Due to the underprivileged position of Arabic internationally, students are convinced that it cannot serve
their academic aspirations. For their part, employers claim that job applicants who speak Arabic only can
by no means meet their industrial and business needs.
CONCLUSION
There seems to be a noticeable dierence between the soft skills students possess and the ones
employers are looking for. While students are immersed in academic and educational endeavors, they
often overlook the critical role that networking can play in building professional connections. As a result,
employers expect them to develop and maintain meaningful professional relationships. It is true that many
students may not have the opportunity to fulll such a requirement; this is why it is essential that they be
prepared to do so. In addition, while students are expected to have extensive practice and experience in
working with diverse teams and managing various interpersonal situations in the workplace, the reality
shows that they still need to work hard to learn how to deal with the challenging and unpredictable
nature of the professional world. Moreover, the ability to understand and manage their own emotions and
empathize with others, along with the ability to apply the critical thinking skills acquired in academic
settings to real-life problem-solving issues, and the ability to lead in academic environments are all
qualities that many students still lack and are advised to develop.
In Moroccan education and business, soft skills, interpersonal skills, professional skills, or power
skills are no longer a fancy or abstract topic to be discussed on webinars or seminars. They have become
a practical eld that has been promoted in and by all universities, and are seriously considered by many
employers. Because these skills are essential components of business success and growth, employers are
attributing a higher priority to them in job interviews.
These facts are the direct conclusions we have drawn from this study. We conclude that employers or
Rachid Elkhayma, Mohamed Ezzaidi
26
recruiters are well aware of the dierent types of power skills and their importance to employees. This is
why they make sure to assess candidates’ understanding, practice and self-awareness of soft skills. Many
of them refrain from hiring graduates whose interpersonal skills are not convincing. They tend to value
candidates with strong soft skills because they contribute to eective teamwork, to proper communication
channels with colleagues and clients, and to a dynamic work environment.
Because these power skills are considered necessary for employment, especially in the private
sector, many students and future graduates appreciate their necessity. They also recognize how these
competencies can help them nd jobs and grow personally and academically. This awareness pushes them
to make signicant individual eorts to improve their understanding and use of such skills. They do so
through formal and informal practices such as giving presentations, engaging in discussions and debates,
making oral reports, completing projects, and participating in extracurricular events. Through these
rewarding activities, they develop, among other competencies, communication, emotional intelligence,
teamwork, and problem-solving skills.
Ethical Statement
We hereby conrm that the data was collected and shared with the consent of the subjects (employers and
students) who voluntarily participated in the study.
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to all the students of ENSAM Casablanca and Semlalia School of
Science and the Casablanca-Rabat employers / recruiters who contributed to the realization of this study.
This research did not receive any specic grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-
for-prot sectors.
Declaration of Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing nancial interests or personal relationships that
could have appeared to inuence the work reported in this paper.
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