ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF SOFT SKILLS TRAINING FOR STUDENTS IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY AT NGUYEN TAT THANH UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Soft skills play an extremely crucial role in graduate success. This research aims to systematize the soft skills being trained, thereby assessing the current status of soft skills training for students as well as proposing solutions. The research employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches to evaluate the current state of soft skills training. Qualitative research was divided into two stages: (i) analyzing and synthesizing documents linked to soft skills education activities to systemize soft skills; and (ii) performing in-depth interviews with graduates and soft skills lecturers to establish groups of criteria. Quantitative research was conducted using surveys of students who had finished studying soft skills. According to the research findings, the degree of student agreement with the assessment criteria for soft skills training programs spaned from 78.07% to 90.13%; regarding lecturers engaged in teaching, it varied from 90.13% to 97.37%; and regarding facilities, from 74.34% to 96.93%. They  also indicated that soft skills training for students at Nguyen Tat Thanh University has led to certain results that have a direct impact on the achievement of the program learning outcomes as well as the capacity to satisfy labor market human resource demands.