Evolution of Soft Skills Training Needs in Romania Due to the Digitalization and Robotization Brought by the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract Nowadays, due to the labor market’s digitalization and robotization toppled by the pandemic restrictions and remote work popularity, the soft skills needed for individuals in search for jobs and career success have fallen into a new era of interest for numerous actors playing in society – individuals, organizations, the private sector, governments, universities, training companies, so on and so forth. Therefore, this article aims at taking a closer look in the process of filling the gap between actors and stakeholders in the area of training, by analyzing the way in which employers’ needs for soft skills have changed in the past 4 years (2018-2022). For this purpose, we gathered and analyzed data regarding the training offers of 8 major training companies in Romania, using a “time travel” instrument available online to compare their official Web Pages from today to the ones from 2018-2019, before the pandemic began. We believe our findings represent a solid start which proves that the need for soft skills training has surely evolved on the market since 2018 until today and can represent a milestone argument for other scientists to base their research on, as well as for governmental stakeholders to base their policies on.