THE INFLUENCE OF GENDER AND ETHNIC FACTORS ON THE SOFT SKILLS OF STUDENTS OF THE FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND LAW, TRA VINH UNIVERSITY

Abstract

This study has been conducted to identify the soft skill gaps between students and graduates as well as analyze the influence of gender and ethnicity to soft skills in TraVinh university. Quantitative data were collected at School of Economics and Law with a sample of 362 students and 300 graduates to measure their soft skills. The results show that both students and graduates are still unconfident about their soft skills in general, leading to an effect on the self-esteem aspects of students. Moreover, people also acknowledge the significance of soft skills, namely critical thinking, problem-solving, self-learning, work-management skills and teamwork as well as communication skills; generally need to be prioritizing equipped with for any kinds of workplaces. Nonetheless, the aforementioned skill gap is significantly remarkable, especially regarding the communication skills. Beside that, there is a significant difference in skills level by gender (male and female) and ethnic group (Kinh, Cham and Khmer). From these analyses, a number of solutions for the work recruitment, schools, graduateshave proposed to lessen the skill gap and meet the demand of labour-markets.