Soft skills development training program to enhance Cambodian university students’ entrepreneurial capabilities
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This study aimed to explore the impacts of three soft skills, namely leadership, critical thinking and problem-solving, and communication skills to enhance entrepreneurial capabilities. A preliminary study has been conducted to develop a soft skills development training program. Therefore, this paper focuses on the relevancy assessment, implementation, and evaluation of the soft skills development training program as the subsequent study. The researchers employed a two-phase research process encompassing to check the relevancy of the soft skills development training program, then implemented a three-day training using the constructivist approach, and finally evaluated its effectiveness. A total of five experts, two assessors, and 15 undergraduate university students were the participants of the respective phases of this study. A qualitative method was employed. The relevancy results from the first phase showed that the soft skills development training program was found relevant as it has been improved and modified in three steps. Firstly, the drafted soft skills training program was piloted and improved based on the comments in ‘Plus, Minus and Delta’ three score format chart. Secondly, the five experts’ evaluations showed that the overall mean score was 4.04 (SD = 0.19) and rated at “agree” level. At the last step, the researchers improved the training program based on the interview results from the five experts. The observation results of the final phase revealed that the two assessors were satisfied with the trainer’s performance in conducting the three-day training by following the soft skills development training program and utilized the constructivist approach. Finally, group interview results indicated that the 15 participants admitted that they possess the three soft skills and these are useful for them to excel in the competitive business environment.
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