Soft Skills Integrated in Sustainable Higher Education

Tang Keow Ngang 
(School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia)

Abstract: Human capital development is crucial and necessary since it drives the nation to the envisioned vision and mission. It is a major challenge in the effort of developing people in order to achieve developed country with our own identity and able to compete at global level. A quality human capital comes from a quality education process. A properly designed and well planned higher education system is vital in developing such human capital. Instilling soft skills into the lives of future generation is aimed at developing their knowledge, understanding, values and skills which are the essence of education for sustainable development. There are seven elements of soft skills were identified, namely communicative skills, critical thinking and problem solving skills, team work skills, life-long learning and management of information, entrepreneurship skills, ethic, moral and professional skills and leadership skills. This paper discusses some aspects of sustainable development and how the soft skills elements which have been identified can realized the sustainable development in higher education.

Key words: higher education; human capital; soft skills; sustainable development