‘A majority of respondents said new hires are not wellprepared to perform at a high level in a professional environment, primarily because of insufficient soft skills’ (Bloomberg Next, 2018: 2). This statement is from one of the more recent of a long list of reports and surveys assessing what skills employers want in new graduates compared to the skills they actually possess (see also, e.g., CBI, 2019; Cengage, 2019; IFF Research, 2018; Wilkie, 2019). In few words it highlights once again the persistent perception that many business and science graduates, although proficient in the specific subject matter of their disciplines, could well be falling short when it comes to social, imaginative and creative capacities. This deficiency may also lie at the heart of many of our dysfunctional, uberized forms of employability, which improve the statistics but fail the society of employed people. The desirability of soft skills development relates therefore not only to employers’ demands but also to the future proofing of the individual employee against redundancy, disempowerment and marginalization. As the World Economic Forum has highlighted (WEF, 2018), the Fourth Industrial Revolution will need soft skills as much as it will need technological expertise. Allen Blue, Co-Founder of LinkedIn, confirms that view:

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特刊：同理心、感性和毕业生就业——人文学科有帮助吗？

“大多数受访者表示，新员工没有做好在专业环境中发挥高水平的准备，主要是因为软技能不足”（彭博社，2018 年：2）。该声明来自一长串报告和调查中最近的一份报告和调查，这些报告和调查评估了雇主希望应届毕业生具备的技能与他们实际拥有的技能相比（另见，例如，CBI，2019；Cengage，2019；IFF Research，2018 ；威尔基，2019 年）。简而言之，它再次强调了一种持续的看法，即许多商业和科学毕业生虽然精通其学科的特定主题，但在社交、想象力和创造能力方面很可能达​​不到要求。这种缺陷也可能是我们许多功能失调的、优步化的就业形式的核心，这改善了统计数据，但使就业人员的社会失败。因此，软技能发展的可取性不仅与雇主的要求有关，而且与员工个人未来防止裁员、剥夺权力和边缘化有关。正如世界经济论坛所强调的那样（世界经济论坛，2018 年），第四次工业革命不仅需要技术专长，还需要软技能。LinkedIn 联合创始人 Allen Blue 证实了这一观点：第四次工业革命不仅需要技术专长，还需要软技能。LinkedIn 联合创始人 Allen Blue 证实了这一观点：第四次工业革命不仅需要技术专长，还需要软技能。LinkedIn 联合创始人 Allen Blue 证实了这一观点：