There has been much reported in the media this week about the lack of soft skills in the workforce today, especially in young people who are coming into the work environment for the first time. Schools are also reinforcing the lack of this training in the curriculum. Why is it that soft skills training has been virtually ignored in the education and business world for so long? It seems that we do not value the importance of these skills as much as the academic side of the equation.

It is important that we give these equal value. The academic qualifications that are rightly important in all roles only get us to the starting line. The application of what we learn from the academic courses will involve dealing with people, effective communication, telephone skills, customer service skill, performance management, delegation, motivation and many other soft skills areas.

Success in business comes from our ability to use and apply soft skills, interact effectively with colleagues and customers and show confidence in our abilities – in other words to ‘sell ourselves’. If we can’t demonstrate that we have belief in ourselves, why should other people do the same? At Axio Development we believe passionately in soft skills development and we have many examples of people who have worked on these skills have gone on to achieve far more than they ever thought possible.

To find out more go to www.axiodevelopment.co.uk