Soft skills in young people in regions

Abstract

This article is devoted to the problem of studying soft skills in young people in regions. For this study, the authors subdivide soft skills into four categories: behavioural group, values-related group, group of needs and motives and emotional group. The empirical research, conducted in 2020 in Chelyabinsk (Russia), involved 371 young people from the Chelyabinsk region aged 17 to 30 years and older. To assess the development level of the identified groups of soft skills, the authors created a questionnaire, applied Schwartz Value Survey and used the Mann-Whitney U test for the quantitative comparison of two groups and the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance for the quantitative comparison of three or more groups. The results of empirical research showed that the soft skills of the behavioural group and the group of needs and motives are more developed. Most of the respondents noted that they had developed communicative skills, stable behaviour, the ability for self-development and self-improvement. The authors also note that the development of soft skills increases with age among the respondents older than 30 years old.