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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERPERSONAL SKILLS IN TODAY’S MBA PROGRAMMES Soft skills have gained increasing importance in today’s business landscape. Alberto Acereda explores their value and how to measure them
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Responding to changes in the wider business environment, what skills have MBA programmes traditionally
be. These are skills like leadership, collaboration, trust, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, curiosity, adaptability, and eagerness to engage in lifelong learning. It’s the optimal combination of hard and soft skills, especially in a business leadership role, that are critical for success at Business School and beyond. At ETS, we are aligning with this trend – first, by offering the GRE, the most widely accepted test for graduate programmes worldwide, including business and law, which evaluates the ‘hard,’ cognitive skills, and second, through the development of an assessment called PSQ (Personal Skills and Qualities) that is designed to help institutions
understand their applicants’ soft/ interpersonal skills.
focused on, when defining a ‘well-rounded’ MBA student? When we consider the historic
Does an optimal skillset exist for MBA admissions? Given the individuality and uniqueness of each person behind every Business School application, it’s hard to pinpoint an optimal skillset – though we’re confident that decisions are being made based on a combination of hard and soft skills. Individual programmes determine the skills and abilities that will be necessary for an individual’s success not only within their programme itself, but also for their career goals upon graduation. We’ve heard from Business Schools that all things being equal, an individual’s
admissions landscape for Business School, a focus on ‘hard skills’ – the tangible skills that help determine preparedness for a programme – were traditionally the most important. These are skills such as writing, analytics and critical thinking that are easily seen and demonstrated. Now, we’re seeing an increasing importance of ‘soft skills’, often called interpersonal or professional skills, which paint a fuller picture of who an applicant is and who they can
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