The future is bright for soft skills trainers, according to Suman Agarwal.
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I have counselled many people throughout my career and one of the most common problems I have heard is not being able to achieve success despite having all the necessary hard skills. While hard skills are necessary to get an opportunity, soft skills are critical to making it big in any career.
The reason is that the world has become globalised and businesses thrive on network building. And the ability to communicate, establish trust, and build relationships allows us to expand our networks and get ahead despite the cut-throat competition.
Moreover, with businesses offering almost similar services as per the respective industries, a proven way to stand out is making employees stand out. Fortunately, companies around the world have realised the importance of soft skills which has created an impressive market potential for soft skills trainers.
And with continuous innovation to replace hard skills, the future of soft skills trainers looks bright. This brings us to an important question:
What does a soft skills trainer do?
Soft skills trainers are certified professionals who are responsible for soft skills training in different industries including the education, hospitality, management and IT industries. They help their clients back their hard skills with human skills necessary to thrive in an organisation.
More than 2m jobs will be created that would require unique human skills.
Soft skills for professionals typically include leadership skills, communication skills, presentation skills, email etiquette, interpersonal skills, problem-solving and critical thinking development. And the training includes different one-on-one and group activities based on the experience and learnings of soft skills trainers. The job of a soft skills trainer includes:
- Collating learning material and planning activities to train their clients
- Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of their clients and planning the training accordingly
- Analysing effectiveness and calculating progress in the training program
- Scheduling, systemising, billing, and much more.​
Skills required to become a soft skills trainer
Anyone with these three basic skills can become a soft skill trainer:
Confidence: The biggest part of the soft skills trainer jobs is helping people feel confident about themselves. Hence, soft skill trainers must be confident and good public speakers. They meet new people regularly which makes being able to communicate confidently extremely critical to their success.
Communication skills: Soft skills trainers must have excellent communication skills to be able to train effectively. Effective communication skills also help trainers build trust among their clients. In addition to being great communicators, soft skills trainers must also be great public speakers.
Passion to train: Be it any job, success becomes unachievable if you’re not passionate about what you do. Hence, soft skills trainers must be passionate about learning continuously and imparting the knowledge in others to change lives.
How workplaces are changing
According to a study by McKinsey, by the year 2030, 30% of the working hours globally can be automated. Moreover, according to the predictions made by the World Economic Forum with the ‘Future of Jobs’ study, 5m occupations will cease to exist by the year 2020. However, more than 2m jobs will be created that would require unique human skills.
The impact of automation on soft skills training jobs
With lots of jobs requiring technical expertise getting automated, 8-9% of the global workforce will be expected to join new occupations by the year 2030. And this would require them to ditch traditional methods, adapt to the advancements, and develop thought leadership which is only possible if they have the required human skills or soft skills.
The most important soft skills include:
- Cognitive ability – Helps in logical reasoning and creative thinking in new jobs
- Collaboration – Critical to working together in the interconnected business world
- Communication – Critical to networking and communicating ideas
- Problem-solving – Helps in finding unique and creative solutions and inspire innovation
- Interpersonal skills – Helps in maintaining relationships and creating business connections
- People management – Critical to managing a creative workforce with empathy
- Negotiation – Important for making business decisions that don’t require either of the parties to compromise
- Decision-making – Helps in interpreting technical data and making logical decisions
- Emotional intelligence – Important to differentiate humans from machines
It is evident that the demand for soft skills trainers is going to top the charts in the coming years. So, if you think that you’re the right fit to become a soft skills trainer, do your research and choose a soft skills training course that will get you where you wish to be. All the best!
About the author
Suman Agarwal is co-founder of Image Consulting Business Institute (ICBI).
