by PRP Group, on 11/13/2024
An interview with David McCool, President & CEO at Muzzy Lane, by Alina Okun, co-founder of Walnut Career Intelligence
Q: Why did Muzzy Lane decide to focus on soft skills? What are soft skills, and why do they matter?
Our journey into the world of soft skills began about three years ago when we connected with the Education Design Lab (EDL). They had done extensive work with employers in community colleges on mapping in-demand skills regionally across the United States. Among those skills were what they referred to as “21st-century skills” (also known as “soft skills”), which included critical thinking and creative problem-solving.
There’s an idiom: people get hired for hard skills and fired for soft skills. As an employer who has hired many individuals, I understand that evaluating soft skills can be challenging. Students often graduate with valuable soft skills but may not always stand out in the resume screening process because hard skills are easier to measure. However, if employers can figure it out and hire someone with greater soft skills, those hires tend to last.
