Soft Skills Online Courses & Certifications

Improve Employability and Teamwork with Soft Skills Courses

Soft skills are interpersonal qualities that show how well you interact with others in professional settings. Teamwork, communication, the ability to diplomatically influence how businesses function, leadership, and problem-solving are the five significant areas that HBR mentions are essential for any resume today. 

 

Soft skills are among the key ingredients that make you valuable in any organisation besides your technical capabilities. They instil confidence in you to discuss, negotiate, persuade, or manage conflicts within your team, cross-department, or with your seniors. 

 

Learning them with soft skills courses offers lifelong advantages, as they are applicable to various situations, even to personal and professional development goals you may have. You not only apply these to your current role or CV, but should leverage them to impress recruiters during your upcoming job interviews. 

 

Is Learning Soft Skills Right for Your Career?

 

Let’s take you through some of the benefits of soft skills training. 

 

Future-Proofs Your Employability

 

Soft skills are a must-have on more than 78% of job postings (Forbes). The reason is job environments change, and coping with the industries in the future requires resilience, critical thinking, leadership, and problem-solving. 

 

Look at the situation of remote work. As of 2023, Buffer states nearly 71% of companies are making do with remote work. While working from anywhere may seem the future of work, Buffer also points out that collaboration and communication are becoming highly important. About 50% of remote workers are using messaging apps. 

 

Along with that, there are newer challenges to overcome after the return-to-work situation. If you have worked remotely, you know there have been more unproductive days or difficulty in socialising after returning to work. Developing soft skills helps you navigate through them. And think this way: your superior soft skills can motivate others in your team, which can uplift team morale.

 

Helps You Network Confidently

 

Let’s also not forget the gig economy, where you may work part-time. Your negotiation skills coupled with collaboration are extremely necessary. 

 

Just to develop business relations, you need to be able to show your value proposition. You may have all that the clients require but the way you present and persuade them entirely depends on your soft skills. 

 

They Demonstrate You’re Ready to Take Initiative 

 

Having soft skills ensures you are motivated to take initiative and ownership. These are valuable within any role you have and they can help you in showing optimism and support for changes that generally disrupt workflows. 

 

These prepare you for higher positions, especially, when you are in the corporate sector. And the higher you go up the levels of management, the more you are accountable for creating an atmosphere of empathy, emotional intelligence, innovation, and problem-solving. 

 

Who Can Benefit from Soft Skills Courses?

1. Managers: Soft skills are essential for managers who need to lead and motivate their teams, build strong relationships with clients and stakeholders, and effectively manage conflict.
2. Salespeople and Business Development professionals: Soft skills are critical for salespeople who must build rapport with potential customers, persuade them to buy their products or services, and handle objections effectively.
3. Customer service representatives: Soft skills are essential for customer service representatives who must deal with demanding customers, resolve complaints, and provide excellent customer service.
4. Technical professionals: Soft skills are becoming increasingly crucial for technical professionals who need to work effectively with cross-functional teams, communicate technical concepts to non-technical audiences, and navigate the complexities of the workplace.
5. Recent graduates/Freshers: Soft skills are essential for recent graduates who are entering the workforce for the first time. They need to communicate effectively, work well with others, and solve problems. Soft skills courses can help them develop these skills and make a strong first impression on their new employers.

What to Expect from Soft Skills Courses?

1. Practical training sessions aimed at cultivating the skills necessary to adapt, innovate, and thrive in new and demanding situations.
2. Experts help you learn how to be personable and build rapport with customers even without face-to-face interaction.
3. Tests and assessments to qualify you with industry-standard certifications to land your dream job.

Should You Learn Soft Skills Free or Paid?

 

Ideally, if you plan to showcase such skills on your resume, you must show some proof of experience or training. In a situation when you are a fresher, paid soft skill courses that come with certificates are valuable to employers everywhere. 

 

Paid ones also benefit your learning regarding coverage, instructors, and institutions. The syllabi are well-structured and detailed, designed by teachers and industry experts from top B-schools and Fortune 500 companies. The paid route can also take you to specific industry-based soft skills training. Take, for instance, you are aspiring to become an Executive Assistant or a Customer Representative. You will find more dedicated options for different types of roles. 

 

On the other hand, free soft skills courses are useful when exploring the basics and scope of these workplace qualities. These free ones also may not cover assessments, which may get harder to quantify that you actually learned. But lucky for you, there are excellent soft skills course providers like Alison, which provides free certificates with detailed courses and even diplomas. 

 

Which are the Best Platforms for Soft Skills Training Online?

 

If you have come to Shiksha Online for the first time or have selected other online courses before here, you will find a good list of soft skills courses. And only the top MOOCs that offer value to your resume. 

 

Here is a list of the best platforms for soft skills training onilne. We are listing them based on the depth of the course curriculum, the expertise of instructors, and student ratings. 

Provider	USPs
TCS iON soft skills courses	Free courses, self-paced learning, focus on foundation soft skills
Udemy soft skills courses	Paid courses but large variety and instructors have work experience, focus on sector-specific skills
Alison soft skills courses	Free courses, partner with universities for content, offer certifications on completion
NPTEL soft skills courses	Free courses, developed by university lecturers, offer in-depth diploma programs

 

Top 5 Soft Skills Courses with Syllabus for 2024

Course Name	Syllabus
Introduction to Soft Skills (TCS iON)	Importance of Soft Skills. Acquiring Soft Skills. Difference between Hard and Soft Skills.
Customer Service: Soft Skills Fundamentals (Udemy)	Taking care of yourself. Listening skills. Being personable. Managing expectations
Soft Skills for Professionals (Alison)	Communication skills. Teamwork skills. Problem-solving decision-making skills. Self-management leadership skills
Diploma in Soft Skill Development (Alison)	Communication skills (Listening, speaking, business writing). Self-awareness. Time management
Soft Skills for Sales Professionals (LinkedIn Learning)	Developing soft skills for sales (Adaptability, listening, emotional intelligence, resilience). Understanding value of soft skills in sales. Putting soft skills into action