Perceived instructional requirements of soft-skills trainers and hard-skills trainers

Abstract

Purpose<br />This study aims to investigate whether soft-skills trainers and hard-skills trainers have different perspectives regarding their required instructional knowledge and skills.<br /><br />Design/methodology/approach<br />An online questionnaire was completed by 129 soft-skills trainers and 61 hard-skills trainers. The authors used 14 items covering relevant instructional knowledge and skills based on the training literature.<br /><br />Findings<br />An exploratory factor analysis identified the following two factors: managing interactions and instructional activities. A multivariate analysis of variance showed significant differences in the assessments of managing interactions (p = 0.00) and instructional activities (p = 0.01) between soft- and hard-skills trainers. The differences in managing interactions were larger than those in instructional activities. The soft-skills trainers showed higher agreement with all items. Most individual items had medium effect sizes. The differing perspectives of soft- and hard-skills trainers are not an effect of different educational backgrounds.<br /><br />Research limitations/implications<br />These findings suggest that differences exist in the required instructional knowledge and skills depending on whether trainers teach soft or hard skills. Further research should consider the training content.<br /><br />Practical implications<br />Practitioners can ensure that soft-skills trainers meet the respective requirements.<br /><br />Originality/value<br />This study is the first to investigate the differences in soft- and hard-skills trainers’ perceptions of instructional requirements.