Modern work environment demands impeccable social acumen with academic grades to get success and progress in a professional career. Many people and educational institutions give equal importance to both, the educational achievements and the social skills. I fully agree with the belief as good grades can give you a job, but good interpersonal skills can ensure a successful job career.
Nowadays, many multinational companies during their university placement drives use the criteria of good marks only for shortlisting of the probable candidates not for final selections. The shortlisted students pass through many rounds of group discussions and personal interviews, so that employers can assess the recruits for their interpersonal skills. The final decision on the selection is mainly done based on the performance in these skills only. Due to that, many colleges have started introducing courses focused to develop social skills among their students.
It depends on the type of the job as specific fields of jobs require mainly people's skills. People with excellent social skills can only ace the peculiar domains of work like sales and marketing, where they require extremely good convincing power over customers and vendors. It can be observed in the popular and big organisations, where the owners with less or no prior academic background have successfully managed the company solely by their personal skills.
In my profound opinion, social and personal skills are as important as good academic statistics, as ultimately those skills are going to propel the growth of professional career efficiently. Parents and teacher should encourage the students to take the classes for the improvement in the area.
Bhavesh Ahir