Soft skills compiled by Eastern Kentucky University from executive listings. Soft skills Soft skills are a combination of people skills, social skills, communication skills, character of personality traits, attitudes, career attribute, social intelligence and emotional intelligence quotients among others that enable people to navigate their environment, work well with others, perform well, and achieve their goals with complementing hard skills. The Collins English Dictionary defines the term "soft skills" as "desirable qualities for certain forms of employment that do not depend on acquired knowledge: they include common sense, the ability to deal with people, and a positive flexible attitude." Since 1959, the
21st century skills global economy. Skills identified for success in the areas of literacy and mathematics: Following the release of "A Nation at Risk", the U.S. Secretary of Labor appointed the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) to determine the skills needed for young people to succeed in the workplace to foster a high-performance economy. SCANS focused on what they called "learning a living" system. In 1991, they issued their initial report, "What Work Requires of Schools". The report concluded that a high-performance workplace requires workers who have key fundamental skills: basic skills and knowledge, thinking skills to apply that knowledge, personal