The private sector in Fiji is struggling to find employees with critical soft skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and creative thinking, says ESG Group manager and Vinod Patel and Co Ltd representative Latileta Qoro.
The sector, she said also faces a significant challenge due to a mismatch between needed skills and the current workforce, particularly a lack of essential soft skills.
While technical skills are important, Ms Qoro told participants at the Top Executive and Spa in Nadi yesterday that any resurgence of soft skills in the workforce would require a reform starting from primary schools and not just tertiary institutions.
”But we’re missing the soft skills around problem solving, critical thinking, creative thinking. So, you know, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have the specialist skills that we want. But if you’ve got these three soft skills, we’d be more than happy to train you.”
”So that’s the first half, we have a mismatch between the skill sets that the private sector needs, and a big large corporates like Vinod Patel is an example I’m anchoring on today. But there’s the other element, which is just your soft skills, I don’t know if it’s shared by others,” she said.
Ms Qoro highlighted a deficit in problem-solving, critical thinking, and creative thinking while noting that a prospective employee with these attributes would be highly valued, even if they lacked specialist skills, as the company would be willing to provide training.
”But we’re missing the soft skills around problem solving, critical thinking, creative thinking. So, you know, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have the specialist skills that we want. But if you’ve got these three soft skills, we’d be more than happy to train you.”
Ms Qoro said this would require a reform starting from primary school, not just tertiary institutions.
”It might not be shared with everyone here but it’s like hiring robots. If you can reconcile this and debit this and credit this, nothing wrong with the accountants. But it’s very robotic the way they operate. But we’re on this transformation journey. And we’re asking you to think critically.
“Give us solutions. If there’s a problem, how do we fix it?
“What’s the alternative?
“We don’t have that soft skills and I think, for me, it’s beyond an overhaul of the tertiary institutions.”
Ms Qoro said the underlying theme was a mismatch in the systems, where businesses had evolved, but the current systems were not able to put the right people out.
