The Role of Hard Skills and Soft Skills in Work Readiness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47747/icbem.v3i1.3251Keywords:
Hard Skills, Soft Skills, Work Readiness, Employability, Workforce DevelopmentAbstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of hard skills and soft skills on work readiness. The respondents were employees of companies based in Semarang City. The total number of respondents in this study was 105. The analytical tool used was SPSS version 27. The tests conducted included instrument testing (validity and reliability), model testing (coefficient of determination and F-test), and the t-test. The data analysis results show that hard skills have a significant positive effect on work readiness. Soft skills also have a significant positive impact on work readiness. This study provides both theoretical and practical implications. It also has several limitations and offers directions for future research.
References
Boden, R., & Nedeva, M. (2010). Employing discourse : universities and graduate ‘ employability .’ Journal of Education Policy, 25(August 2014), 37–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930903349489
Caballero, C., & Walker, A. (2010). Work readiness in graduate recruitment and selection: A review of current assessment methods. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 1, 13–25. https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2010vol1no1art546
Caballero, C., Walker, A., & Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M. (2011). The Work Readiness Scale (WRS): Developing a measure to assess work readiness in college graduates. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 2, 41–54. https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2011vol2no1art552
Dacre Pool, L., & Sewell, P. (2007). The key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability. Education + Training, 49(4), 277–289. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910710754435
Fugate, M., Kinicki, A., & Ashforth, B. (2004). Employability: A Psycho-Social Construct, Its Dimensions, and Applications. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 65, 14–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.10.005
Hair, J., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C., & Sarstedt, M. (2022). A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).
Hevedanli, M. (2025). Analysing the researches on soft skills in Turkey. 20(February), 22–45. https://doi.org/10.5897/ERR2024.4445
Ingsih, K., & Suhana, S. (2023). Improving Working Readiness through Mastering Soft Skills: Empirical Evidence from University Students in Indonesia. Revista de Métodos Cuantitativos Para La Economía y La Empresa, 35, 268–279. https://doi.org/10.46661/revmetodoscuanteconempresa.6426
Jameson, A., Carthy, A., McGuinness, C., & McSweeney, F. (2016). Emotional Intelligence and Graduates – Employers’ Perspectives. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 228, 515–522. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.07.079
Piopiunik, M., Schwerdt, G., Simon, L., & Woessmann, L. (2020). Skills, signals, and employability: An experimental investigation. European Economic Review, 123, 103374. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EUROECOREV.2020.103374
Schislyaeva, E., & Saychenko, O. (2022). Labor Market Soft Skills in the Context of Digitalization of the Economy. Social Sciences, 11, 91. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11030091
Scurry, T., & Blenkinsopp, J. (2011). Under‐employment among recent graduates: a review of the literature. Personnel Review, 40(5), 643–659. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111154487
Seti, T., Ngqulana, A., & Sindesi, O. (2025). Industry perceptions of employability skills for agricultural graduates in the fourth industrial revolution. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 51, a2214. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v51i0.2214
Siddique, S., Ahsan, A., Azizi, N., & Haass, O. (2022). Students’ Workplace Readiness: Assessment and Skill-Building for Graduate Employability. Sustainability, 14, 1749. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031749
Sopa, A., Asbari, M., Purwanto, A., Santoso, P., Ramdan, M., Primahendra, R., Mustofa, Hutagalung, D., Maesaroh, S., & Winanti. (2020). Hard Skills versus Soft Skills: Which are More Important for Indonesian Employees Innovation Capability. 29, 156–175.
Strang, K. D. (2022). How effective is business education in the workplace: structural equation model of soft and hard skill competencies. SN Business & Economics, 3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-022-00404-1
Suhana, S., Suharnomo, S., Mas’ud, F., & Mansyur, A. (2024). Improving Knowledge Sharing through Trust-based Collaboration and Idealized Influence Transformational. Revista de Métodos Cuantitativos Para La Economía y La Empresa, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.46661/rev.metodoscuant.econ.empresa.7570
Teng, W., Ma, C., Pahlevansharif, S., & Turner, J. J. (2019). Graduate readiness for the employment market of the 4th industrial revolution: The development of soft employability skills. Education + Training, 61(5), 590–604. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-07-2018-0154
Varenyk, V., & Piskova, Z. (2024). Soft, hard, and digital skills for managers in the digital age: Business requirements and the need to master them. Development Management, 23, 46–61. https://doi.org/10.57111/devt/1.2024.46