Educational Alternatives, Volume 19, 2021

Abstract: Soft skills are very important in several aspects of human life, including the workplace and education, and are anticipated to play an even more important role in the future. Organizations, employers, employees and students demand soft skills since they are considered important predictors of career success. The present study reports the development of the Soft Skills Assessment Battery (SSAB), a measure developed to assess some of the most important soft skills, namely adaptability, collaboration, creativity, persuasion, and time management. Initially, 100 items per scale were developed and administered to a sample of 2122 participants (approximately 400/scale). Next, using EFA, a series of unidimensional models were tested, resulting in the retention of 75 items (15x5). In the next step, the factor structure of the new scale was examined via CFA, using a new sample (N=224). Four different models were contrasted: a one-factor, a five-factor, a hierarchical (second-order), and a bifactor model. Results showed that the five-factor and the bifactor models provided a good model fit. Based on the principle of parsimony, the five-factor model was preferred to represent the dimensional structure of the SSAB. Composite Reliability using omega index showed that all scales presented acceptable internal consistency estimates, with values ranging between .851 (Adaptability) and .911 (Creativity). Finally, using the Fornell-Larcker criterion, convergent validity (i.e., all items within each scale are correlated well) and discriminant validity (i.e., the extent to which scales are distinct and uncorrelated) were demonstrated. Consequently, using indices such as the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) and the Composite Reliability (CR), we provided evidence supporting the construct validity of the SSAB.