Soft Skills and Entrepreneurial Spirit: Integration of Skills through Continuing Education for Indonesian Students in the Era of Globalization 21st Century

Soft Skills and Entrepreneurial Spirit: Integration of Skills through Continuing Education for Indonesian Students in the Era of Globalization 21st Century

Devangga Putra Adhitya Pratama^1*, Waspodo Tjipto Subroto², Norida Canda Sakti³

¹Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi Pemuda, Indonesia

^2,3Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.51244/IJRSI.2024.11120065

Received: 07 December 2024; Accepted: 11 December 2024; Published: 18 January 2025

ABSTRACT

This article aims to analyze the soft skills needed to foster an entrepreneurial spirit among students. This research is a literature review research where in this literature review includes the author’s name, year of publication, research objectives, research subjects, research methods, and related research results. In the literature review research, soft skills are needed in fostering an entrepreneurial spirit among students using quantitative and qualitative methods. Problems among students, especially learning activities on campus, generally emphasize more on the dimensions of hard skills than soft skills, even though the ideal learning practice should combine the dimensions of hard skills and soft skills. If the hard skills dimension emphasizes the technical and academic skills of students related to the field of science studied, the soft skills dimension prioritizes the intra- and inter-personal skills of students. So, it is necessary to develop soft skills to foster the entrepreneurial spirit of students. The results of the research on the literature review are that soft skills are needed and influential in fostering an entrepreneurial spirit among students. The soft skills needed include being able to communicate well, having an attitude of confidence, discipline, independence, being able to think critically, and being able to manage time and work in teams. With the soft skills possessed by students in fostering an entrepreneurial spirit, students can apply them by starting entrepreneurship early on, namely when they are still students, so that they can become provisions so that when entering the world of work later, students no longer need to wait for job vacancies but can create job opportunities for other people in need.

Keywords: Soft Skill, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Continuing Education, Globalization, 21st Century

INTRODUCTION

In the era of globalization, competition in the business world is very tight and sharp, so that various market opportunities will be contested. This must also be balanced with quality human resources (HR). Through education, the quality of human resources can be improved. Education is a conscious effort that is planned, programmed and sustainable to help students develop their abilities optimally, both cognitive aspects, affective aspects, and psychomotor aspects, is one of the keys to progres.[1] This means that the better the quality of education organized by a nation will be followed by the better quality of the nation. Higher education as an institution was built to educate the nation’s life in facing a challenging future, so the success of the institution is not only judged by what is produced at this time. Thus, the function of higher education is not only to function as a transactional institution but also as a nursery to prepare seeds that will later grow more perfect. Higher education according to Pratama & Sakti, [2] as a pioneer of the reform movement is not only the main driver of the formation of a science- and technology-minded society, but is also expected to help find solutions to problems, especially in the field of education. To be able to carry out this task, universities should provide provisions for students to have an independent spirit, have individual entrepreneurial instincts and a collective entrepreneurial spirit, and form graduates who are able to create jobs (job creaters) and not job seekers. Thus, there needs to be an implementation of entrepreneurial insights, attitudes and spirit among students. [3]

Every graduate produced by higher education has actually been equipped with adequate skills (hard skills) to be able to do certain technical jobs. However, when entering the world of work, many of them fail due to their low mastery of soft skills. This is in accordance with learning activities on campus generally emphasize more on the hard skills dimension than soft skills, even though the ideal learning practice should combine the dimensions of hards skills and soft skills [4]. If the hards skills dimension emphasizes the technical and academic skills of students related to the field of study, the soft skills dimension prioritizes the intra- and inter-personal skills of students. Both dimensions should be practiced in student activities and in the daily lecture process. The real fact is that the practice of lectures is still concerning because there is a tendency that lecturers as class managers pay less attention to the soft skills dimension of students. For example, a lecturer tends to assess students’ abilities only from the cognitive aspect. Meanwhile, the soft skills dimension that prioritizes intra- and inter-personal skills receives less attention. This fact also occurs in the world of work where when recruiting new employees, the world of work tends to demand requirements related to technical skills such as curriculum vitae, grade point average (GPA), work experience and various other skills. [5]

This is also evidenced Mudlofir’s research in Rofi’ah, [1], which states that “a person’s success is not determined solely by knowledge and technical ability (hard skills), but more by the ability to manage themselves and others (soft skills). This research reveals that success is only determined by about 20% by hard skills and the remaining 80% by soft skills.” The results of this study further position the importance of soft skill development for students. The soft skills referred to in this case are entrepreneurial attitude and spirit. A nation will progress if its citizens have a high entrepreneurial spirit. Through entrepreneurship learning among students, soft skills can be obtained. In line with the above understanding, the learning objectives carried out by students must be based on four pillars, namely learning how to know, learning how to do, learning how to be, and learning how to live together.[6] The first two foundations mean that the learning process carried out refers to the ability to actualize and organize all the knowledge and skills that each individual has in facing all types of jobs based on the education they have (having hard skills). [7]

In other words, students have competencies that allow them to compete to enter the world of work. While the last two foundations refer to the ability to actualize and organize based on (Utomo & Pratama, 2024a) the various abilities that exist in each individual in a systemic order towards a common goal. This means that to be able to become someone who is desirable and can coexist with others, both in the workplace and in society, they must develop attitudes of tolerance, sympathy, empathy, emotions, ethics and other psychological elements; this is what is called soft skills.

From the above problems, the formulation of the problem statement in this article is How soft skills are needed as a basis for fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship among students? Related to the formulation of the problem, this paper aims to analyze the soft skills needed as a basis for fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship among students in higher education. Based on the problem formulation and objectives above, the benefit of this paper is that entrepreneurship learning in higher education can later be achieved by combining the dimensions of hard skills and soft skills in an integrated package in both academic and non-academic activities

Definition of Soft Skill

Soft skills are skills and life skills, both for themselves, in groups, or in society, as well as with the Creator. By having soft skills, one’s existence will be increasingly felt in society.[1] Skills will communicate, emotional skills, language skills, group skills, have ethics and morals, polite and spiritual skills. while according to other sources in Utomo, [6] Soft skills are “a sociological term which refers to the cluster of personality traits, social graces, facility with language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that mark people to varying degrees. Soft skills complement hard skills, which are technical requirements of a  job.” Personal Qualities: Responsibility, sociability, self-management, integrity, honesty. Interpersonal Skills: participates as a member of the team, teaches others, serves clients/customers, exercises leadership, negotiates, and works with cultural diversity. [9]

Interpersonal skills include several abilities, one’s ability to warm up relationships, make an easy approach, build relationships constructively, use diplomacy and techniques to melt tense situations, and use styles that can stop hostility. Thomas F. Mader and Diane C Mader, distinguish between interpersonal and interpersonal communication. Communication has a higher quality of closeness than impersonal. Interpersonal is communication between two or more people each with emotional involvement and commitment in the relationship. Interpersonal skill is the ability to build relationships with others. In competency theory, interpersonal skills are defined as the desire to understand others. If students have high emotional intelligence, then these students have high personal and interpersonal quality abilities as well. Personal and interpersonal qualities are essentially character. Berthal, according to Sailah Illah defines it as such: “Personal and interpersonal behaviors that develop and maximize human performance (e.g. coaching, team, building, decision making, initiative), soft skill, such as financial, computer or assembly skills.”

There are two intelligences related to the ability to develop personality, namely: interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand and become sensitive to the feelings, intentions, motivations, character, and temperament of others. It is the sensitivity to other people’s facial expressions, voices, and gestures (cues), and the ability to establish relationships and communication with various other people. Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand oneself and act adaptively based on self-knowledge, the ability to reflect and balance oneself, high self-awareness, initiative, and courage. According to a study, almost all leaders in the world have good interpersonal skills.[10] One proof is their ability to maintain long relationships with acquaintances, friends and partners. People with good achievements in their fields also have good interpersonal skills. They are able to maintain agreements, maintain feelings, respect others, place others. According to the results of Abraham Maslow’s study as quoted in the book Journey of Adulthood, some of the characteristics of people who have or are actualizing themselves have the potential: deep loving relationships (deep relationships), have privacy but are not arrogant, have high humor that contains lessons.  Interpersonal skills are also possessed by an entrepreneur in order to perform creative tasks.[11] Creativity is an important element for the existence and development of a business. In Indonesia, the diversity of businesses and the number of entrepreneurs are not as many as in the United States or other countries. About 0.18% of the number of entrepreneurs, therefore it is necessary to develop soft skills in order to foster the entrepreneurial spirit.

According to Bharat Desai, CEO and co-founder of Syntel Inc. in his book Cheung, Cooper-Thomas, Lau, & Wang, [12] soft skills in fostering an entrepreneurial spirit are as follows.

1. Initiative: Initiative refers to taking action beyond the requirements of the job or the demands of the situation. Entrepreneurs must think before being prompted or forced by circumstances and act to grow the business.
2. Perseverance: Perseverance means repeated actions to overcome obstacles that stand in the way of achieving goals.
3. Seek Information: No one knows everything. One must acquire knowledge and gather information from elsewhere. Take help from experts and refer to books and journals to gain an informational advantage.
4. Concern for High Quality Work: Entrepreneurs should have a desire to produce high-standard work. Act to do things that meet or beat existing standards of excellence.
5. Commitment: Commitment means making personal sacrifices or giving extraordinary efforts to get the job done. One must keep delivery time schedules and satisfy customers.
6. Efficiency Orientation: Efficiency orientation is finding ways to do things faster or with fewer resources, or at low cost.
7. Systematic Planning: Developing and using a logical step-by-step plan to achieve goals is referred to as systematic planning. One should plan by breaking down large tasks into sub-tasks, developing plans that anticipate obstacles, evaluating alternatives and taking a logical and systematic approach to activities.
8. Problem Solving: problem-solving attitude and not avoiding the attitude of developing competence.
9. Seek Confidence: One must have a strong belief in oneself and one’s own abilities. Expressing confidence in your own ability to complete tasks or face challenges.
10. Assertiveness: Assertiveness means confronting problems with others directly. You must tell others what they should do and discipline those who fail to perform as expected.
11. Persuasion: Persuasion is convincing someone to buy a product or service, provide finances, or do something he or she wants the person to do.
12. Use of Influence Strategies: Use various strategies to influence others. Developing business contacts, using influential people to achieve goals, limiting the information given to others, etc. are influence strategies.

Based on the above opinion, it can be concluded that prospective entrepreneurs must require soft skills as a provision for the entrepreneurial spirit among students. So students need soft skills as stated above in the provision of growing the entrepreneurial spirit.

Definition of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship first emerged in the 18th century, beginning with new inventions such as the steam engine, spinning machine, etc. Their main goal was to grow and expand the organization through innovation and creativity [13]. Profit and wealth were not the main objectives. In simple terms, the meaning of entrepreneurship is a person who has the courage to take risks to open a business in various opportunities. Taking risks means having an independent mentality and daring to start a business, without being overwhelmed by fear or anxiety, even in uncertain conditions [14]. The definition of entrepreneurship is relatively different among experts / reference sources with different points of attention or emphasis, including the creation of new organizations [15], running new combinations (activities) [16], exploring various opportunities [17], facing uncertainty [18], and obtaining jointly the factors of production.

Some definitions of entrepreneurship include the following: Entrepreneurship is defined as self employment. An entrepreneur gives goods today at a certain price and sells them in the future at an uncertain price.[19] So this definition emphasizes more on how a person faces risk or uncertainty. An entrepreneur is an agent who brings together various means of production and determines the value of his production. Entrepreneurship tries to predict and respond to market changes.[18] This definition emphasizes the role of entrepreneurs in dealing with uncertainty in market dynamics. An entrepreneur is required to carry out basic managerial functions such as direction and supervision. Entrepreneurship is an innovator who implements changes in the market through new combinations. These new combinations can be in the form of (1) introducing new products or with new qualities, (2) introducing new production methods, (3) opening new markets, (4) obtaining new sources of supply of new materials or components, or (5) running a new organization in an industry. Schumpeter links entrepreneurship to the concept of innovation applied in a business context and links it to the combination of resources. [20]

So based on these opinions, the conclusion that can be drawn from these various conclusions is that entrepreneurship is seen as a function that includes the exploitation of opportunities that arise in the market. Such exploitation is largely related to the direction and or combination of productive inputs. An entrepreneur is always required to face risks or opportunities that arise and is often associated with creative and innovative actions. An entrepreneur is a person who changes the value of resources, labor, materials and other factors of production to be greater than before and also a person who makes changes, innovations, and new ways. In addition, an entrepreneur performs a managerial role in their activities, but routine management of ongoing operations is not classified as entrepreneurship. An individual may exhibit entrepreneurial functions when forming an organization, but subsequently perform managerial functions without performing his entrepreneurial functions. So entrepreneurship can be temporary or conditional. Another summary of entrepreneurship is the process of creating something different in value by putting in the necessary effort and time, assuming the accompanying financial, psychological and social risks, and receiving monetary rewards and personal satisfaction.

METHODOLOGY

This article uses the literature review research method. Literature review is library research obtained through searching various books, scientific journals, scientific articles and other publications that can support research topics (Marzali, 2016). The literature review in this study was conducted on articles related to soft skills needed to foster an entrepreneurial spirit in students. All studies or research articles that examine and examine factors or aspects of the soft skills needed to foster an entrepreneurial spirit in college students are considered for review in this literature review. [21]

The objectives of this literature review include: 1) writing a scientific work by examining the topic of entrepreneurship that is needed for those who make scientific work related to the topic; 2) enriching insights and helping to find methods and theories used on topics in the research. The data sources of this literature review are books, journals, scientific articles, policy reports, and government documents, etc. The data collection procedure in this literature review is by using keywords in searching for material to be used in the literature review, then reading, summarizing and compiling the material that has been obtained [22]. The data search in this literature review starts from the Google Scholar electronic data base and the Indonesian Publication Index (IPI).

Figure 1. illustrates the article selection process using the guidelines from Preferred Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA). The initial search obtained the number of articles from 2010-2021 was 387 articles. Next, the articles were screened. A total of 20 articles were included in the next stage. The articles were reviewed for quality so that 10 articles were synthesized in the final report of the literature review.

Fig 1. PRISMA Diagram of Article About Soft Skills and Entrepreneurial Spirit

Researchers selected the articles obtained and extracted data on each article obtained from each database. The results of searches conducted related to economic literacy in each database, namely, Google Scholar (10 articles) and Indonesian Publication Index (10 articles). In this literature review, the authors reviewed and selected several articles found in the electronic data base above using inclusion and exclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria in this literature review are: (1) original research articles, (2) scientific articles in accredited national journals (Sinta 1, Sinta 2, Sinta 3, and Sinta 4), as well as articles that have been published in international journals and several other references, (3) research conducted within the time span (2010-2021), (4) articles published in Indonesian and English. The exclusion criteria in this literature review are, (1) examining soft skills in growing entrepreneurs and (2) research involving students.

In this literature review, researchers reviewed 20 scientific articles/journal publications both nationally and internationally. Important points in reviewing scientific articles that researchers use are the author’s name, year of publication, research objectives, research subjects, research methods, and research results related to the soft skills needed to foster an entrepreneurial spirit in students. In addition, the articles used in this literature review examine the soft skills needed to foster an entrepreneurial spirit among students with qualitative and quantitative methods.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Result

This literature review examines scientific articles that match the writing criteria, namely the author’s name, year of publication, research objectives, research subjects, research methods, and research results related to soft skills in fostering the entrepreneurial spirit. The results of the literature review can be seen in the table.

Table 1. Integration Of Soft Skills And Entrepreneurial Interest In The Formation Of Entrepreneurial Spirit

(Aprillianita, Ahman, & Kodri, 2020)
PURPOSE	Knowing and analyzing the effect of internalization of soft skills and entrepreneurial interest in the formation of entrepreneurial spirit.
METHODS	Explanatory survey method with data collection techniques through distributing questionnaires
SUBJECT	Students MAN all in Kabupaten Kuningan
RESULTS	1) The level of internalization of soft skills, entrepreneurial interest and entrepreneurial spirit of students is in the high category. 2) The internalization of soft skills affects the formation of the entrepreneurial spirit. 3) entrepreneurial interest affects the formation of the entrepreneurial spirit. 4) Internalization of soft skills and entrepreneurial interest affect the formation of the entrepreneurial spirit. These findings indicate that to form an entrepreneurial spirit, it is necessary to increase the internalization of soft skills and entrepreneurial interest.

Table 2. Improving Soft Skills In Entrepreneurship.

(Diandra, 2019) [24]
PURPOSE	To find propositions about improving soft skills in entrepreneurship.
METHODS	Literature Review
SUBJECT	Entrepreneurs and business park practitioners
RESULTS	A sense of responsibility, commitment, risk-taking, and action-orientedness contribute significantly to the improvement of soft skills in entrepreneurship.

Table 3. Internalization Of Soft Skills In The Formation Of The Entrepreneurial Spirit Of Accounting Education Students Of Surakarta Muhammadiyah University.

(Rofi’ah, 2019) [1]
PURPOSE	To describe the internalization of soft skills in the formation of the entrepreneurial spirit of Accounting Education students at Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta.
METHODS	Qualitative research with an ethnographic approach
SUBJECT	Accounting Education Student, University of Muhammadiyah Surakarta
RESULTS	Internalization of soft skills in the formation of students’ entrepreneurial spirit includes self-confidence, discipline, critical thinking, time management, and cooperation. Self-confidence through providing examples of successful and failed entrepreneurs where students will have self-confidence in entrepreneurship, disciplined attitudes starting from attending lectures to disciplined assignments that must be on time, critical thinking in making business plans and creating a new business, managing time well from the process of purchasing materials to marketing products that are carried out in a structured manner, working together in finding a location for selling and preparing equipment to promoting products.

Table 4. Soft Skills Of Entrepreneurship Based On Shariah In Students Of Sma Muhammadiyah Tambak, Banyumas Regency.

(Mukarromah, Safitri, & Makhrus, 2019)
PURPOSE	To provide knowledge and understanding to partners about the basic concepts of sharia-based entrepreneurship.
METHODS	Seminars, discussions, sharing, and practice
SUBJECT	Students of Muhammadiyah Tambak High School, Banyumas Regency
RESULTS	Shows that the participants’ insight and knowledge of sharia-based entrepreneurship soft skill material increased, with 90% of training participants saying that their knowledge, insight and understanding increased after attending the training. Some participants want to practice entrepreneurship as a side business after school hours are over, and some after graduating from school. Students’ entrepreneurial interest in entrepreneurship increased with 85% of participants wanting to pursue the world of entrepreneurship and optimize their entrepreneurial abilities by running a business together at school. This shows that the entrepreneurial mindset of students increased after being given training on sharia-based entrepreneurship soft skills.

Table 5. How Does Entrepreneurship Education Develop Soft Skills

(Humsona & Yuliani, 2018) [25]
PURPOSE	To find out complete information about the PT entrepreneurship education program at Olifant Scholl, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
METHODS	Qualitative descriptive research
SUBJECT	Teachers, students with special needs
RESULTS	Shows that the principal implements the entrepreneurship education program by organizing training for teachers, students with special needs, changing the curriculum and providing school infrastructure according to student needs by training soft skills of independence and creativity.

Table 6. Soft Skills-Based Entrepreneurship And Entrepreneurship Motivation Towards Students’ Entrepreneurship Attitudes In Malang (Case Study Of Accounting And Management Students Of 2016-2019 Unisma Class)

(Rachmawati & Septianita, 2015)
PURPOSE	To find out the relationship or correlation between soft skill-based entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial motivation towards the entrepreneurial attitude of students in Malang.
METHODS	Associative research by analyzing the relationship or correlation
SUBJECT	Students of the Islamic University of Malang, Accounting and Management study program from 2016 to 2019
RESULTS	Shows that soft skills-based entrepreneurship has a positive and significant effect on the entrepreneurial attitude of students in Malang (Case Study of Accounting and Management Students from 2016 to 2019). The higher the level of soft skills-based entrepreneurship, the more it influences the entrepreneurial attitude. Entrepreneurial motivation has a positive and significant effect on the entrepreneurial attitude of students in Malang (Case Study of Accounting and Management Students from 2016 to 2019). The higher the entrepreneurial motivation, the more it influences the entrepreneurial attitude. The determination coefficient R² shows 0.432, meaning that 43.20% of entrepreneurial attitudes are influenced by soft skills-based entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial motivation, while the remaining 56.80% of entrepreneurial attitudes are influenced by other variables not examined in this study.

Tabel 7. Experiential Learning Model On Entrepreneurship Subject To Improve Students’ Soft Skills

(Naufalin, Dinanti, & Krisnaresanti, 2019)
PURPOSE	To improve students’ soft skills in entrepreneurship subjects using experiential learning models.
METHODS	The method used is 2 cycles of the Kemmis and MC Tagart design models.
SUBJECT	Students of 2015/2016
RESULTS	The experiential learning model is an effective model for improving students’ soft skills in entrepreneurship subjects.

Table 8. Developing Students’ Entrepreneurial Spirit

(Ridlowi & Ahmad, 2012)
PURPOSE	The purpose of this study is to make soft skills an educational pattern that is attractive to PTKIN students in entrepreneurship.
METHODS	The research method used is a case study, namely the cultivation of an entrepreneurial spirit based on soft skills at PTKIN.
SUBJECT	The subjects of this study were PTKIN students in Indonesia.
RESULTS	The results of the study show that the soft skill education pattern can foster an interest in entrepreneurship for students from PTKIN.

Table 9. The Influence Of Entrepreneurial Interest And Soft Skills On The Learning Achievement Of Entrepreneurship Subjects Of Grade X And Xii Students Of Industrial Electronics Expertise Program Of Smk Muda Patria

(Wijayanti & Putri, 2014)
PURPOSE	To determine (1) the influence of entrepreneurial interest on learning achievement in entrepreneurship subjects, (2) the influence of soft skills on learning achievement in entrepreneurship subjects, (3) the influence of entrepreneurial interest and soft skills together on learning achievement in entrepreneurship subjects, and (4) the relationship between entrepreneurial ability and learning achievement in entrepreneurship subjects of class X and XII students at SMK Muda Patria Kalasan Industrial Electronics Expertise Program in the 2013/2014 academic year.
METHODS	Simple regression analysis and multiple regression to determine the effect of independent variables on dependent variables and using point biserial correlation.
SUBJECT	Students of class X and XII of SMK Muda Patria Kalasan Industrial Electronics Expertise Program for the 2013/2014 academic year.
RESULTS	The results of the study showed that: (1) there is a positive and significant influence between entrepreneurial interest and learning achievement in entrepreneurship subjects with a contribution of 13.61%; (2) there is a positive and significant influence between soft skills and learning achievement in entrepreneurship subjects with a contribution of 6.87%; (3) there is a positive and significant influence between entrepreneurial interest and soft skills together on learning achievement in entrepreneurship subjects with a contribution of 15.1%; (4) there is a relationship between entrepreneurial ability and learning achievement in entrepreneurship subjects.

Table 10. Soft Skill And Hard Skill Development In Entrepreneurship Learning And Its Influence On The Ability To Design Business Prospects (Case Study Of Alumni Of 2011 Smk Telkom Darul Ulum Jombang)

(Sumargono, 2013) [27]
PURPOSE	This study aims to determine the extent of the influence of soft skill and hard skill development in entrepreneurship learning on the ability to design business prospects.
METHODS	The method used in this study is multiple regression analysis to determine whether or not there is an influence between two or more variables and how much influence it has.
SUBJECT	From a population of 295 people, a sample of 100 alumni of SMK Telkom Darul Ulum Jombang in 2011 has been determined.
RESULTS	The results of the study obtained F count (7.486) > F table (1.39) with a significance level of 5%, which means that there is a positive influence between the development of soft skills and hard skills in entrepreneurship learning on the ability to design business prospects. Based on the results of the t-test, it is proven that the variable (X2) hard skills have a dominant influence on the variable (Y) ability to design business prospects, with a contribution of 0.266, or 26.6%. While the variable (X1) soft skills have an influence on the variable (Y) ability to design business prospects of 0.192 with a contribution of 19.2%

DISCUSSION

Based on the results of the literature review of articles or journals in the table above, there are similarities in several studies on soft skills needed to foster an entrepreneurial spirit among students. This is indicated by the researcher’s findings that soft skills among students are very necessary and influential in fostering an entrepreneurial spirit. So that the soft skills needed to foster an entrepreneurial spirit in students include being able to communicate well, having a self-confident attitude, being disciplined and independent, being able to think critically, and being able to manage time and work together. Soft skills are self-attributes that do not need to be studied formally, but soft skills are very necessary because they are important aspects of success. By training students to be confident, good at communicating, independent in doing assignments, and able to work with a team, these soft skills can later be used as provisions and foster an entrepreneurial spirit in students. Entrepreneurship is defined as working alone (self-employment). An entrepreneur provides goods at a certain price now and sells them in the future at an uncertain price [19]. So, this definition emphasizes more on how someone deals with risk or uncertainty. Therefore, soft skills are very necessary as a basis for provisions in growing an entrepreneurial spirit according to the definition above, an entrepreneur must be able to face risks and uncertainties so that students dare to become entrepreneurs. It can be started from a small business that can help ease the burden of college fees and meet daily life. In addition, when entering the world of work if there are no job vacancies, students who have high soft skills can become entrepreneurs and open up job opportunities for others. This is in accordance with Rachmawati’s research namely that with soft skill-based entrepreneurship, it can foster an entrepreneurial attitude among students.

So Soft skills are needed and influential in fostering an entrepreneurial spirit among students. The soft skills needed include the attitude of being able to communicate well, having self-confidence, discipline, independence, being able to think critically, and being able to manage time and work together in a team. With the soft skills possessed by students in fostering an entrepreneurial spirit, students can apply them by starting entrepreneurship early on. Namely when they are still students, so that they can be provisions so that when they enter the world of work later, students no longer need to wait for job vacancies but can create job opportunities for others who need them. Internalization of soft skills in the formation of students’ entrepreneurial spirit includes self-confidence, discipline, critical thinking, time management and cooperation. Self-confidence through providing examples of successful and failed entrepreneurs where students will have self-confidence in entrepreneurship, a disciplined attitude starting from attending lectures to the discipline of collecting assignments that must be on time, thinking critically in making business plans and creating a new business, managing time well from the process of purchasing materials to marketing products that are carried out in a structured manner, working together in finding a location for selling and preparing equipment to promoting products. [28]–[30]

Soft skills can be improved in several ways, namely, being responsible, committed, daring to take risks, and action-oriented. In entrepreneurship, the ability to be responsible has nothing to do with technical skills. A sense of responsibility arises from a high sense of ownership of a job or business. The ability to be responsible is part of the soft skills that every entrepreneur must have. The ability to be responsible is an action that is carried out of one’s own will and with full awareness. Responsibility is a form of a person’s attitude and behavior in carrying out their duties and obligations both for themselves and for their environment. Entrepreneurs who do business with a full attitude of responsibility then the possibility of a greater level of success.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results of the literature review and discussion, it can be concluded that students need soft skills in developing an entrepreneurial spirit. In addition, soft skills are very influential in improving the entrepreneurial spirit. With high soft skills, students can develop an entrepreneurial spirit so that it can be useful for themselves to meet their needs by opening a business and providing job opportunities for others. So that soft skills are needed and influential in developing an entrepreneurial spirit among students. The soft skills needed include the attitude of being able to communicate well, having a self-confident attitude, discipline, independence, being able to think critically, and being able to manage time and work together in a team. With the soft skills possessed by students in developing an entrepreneurial spirit, students can apply them by starting entrepreneurship early on, namely when they are still students, so that they can be provisions so that when they enter the world of work later, students no longer need to wait for job vacancies but can create job opportunities for others who need them. Soft skills can be improved in several ways, namely; responsible, committed, daring to take risks, and action-oriented.

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