Examining softs skills Training and employability competency among B-School Students: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

Abstract

This research is aimed at finding the relation between the five dimensions of soft skills training (Personal and Methodological Skills (PMS), Soft Skills Content and Facilities (SCF), Trainer Evaluation (TE), Social Skills Provided (SSP) and Institutional Planning of Soft Skills (IPS) with the level of Employability Competency (EC) of the students of business school (B-school). In terms of performance in management education, employability has been a key indicator, and the new evidence from the world suggests that the human dimension of employability has shifted emphasis more toward interpersonal competency skills than technical skills and knowledge (Peck & Theodore, 2000; Hussein, 2024). The current research is a re-specification of the original model based on a 300 respondent structured data set comprised of 22 Likert scaled items, which was subsequently tested using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and then Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modelling (CB-SEM) (Hair et al., 2019). The constructs all had an acceptable to good reliability (α = .757 – .880), convergent validity (CR > .75; AVE > .50), and latent-variable correction procedures as recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988) with a six factor structure (KMO = .872; Bartlett's χ² significant, p < .001) with 68.55% of the cumulative variance. The structural model which was found to have a good fit (χ²/df = 1.05; CFI = .996; TLI = .996; RMSEA = .013) accounted for 54.0% of the variance in the Employability Competency (R² = .540). The most relevant variables were found to be the Trainer Evaluation (β = .537, p < .001), Social Skills Provided (β = .172, p < .01) and Soft Skills Content and Facilities (β = .147, p < .05), which are in accordance with previous studies on competency transfer through trainer (Bisschoff & Massyn, 2025; Sánchez Ramírez et al., 2024). There was no significant difference found for Personal and Methodological Skills (β = .045, ns), and for Institutional Planning (β = .040, ns). Results corroborate the idea that quality of trainers is the primary source of soft-skills competency, which most of the previous models based on regression (Senadheera & Wisenthige, 2026; Villegas, 2024) supported by the idea has been re-specified as a latent variable. This study is focused on the introduction of soft skill trainings based on employability competency for the B-school students by applying the structural equation modeling technique for the evaluation of the trainers.