A move away from ‘soft’ skills offers us leadership opportunities

Dr Ann Villiers, Life Member CDAA

In my December 2025 member resource Advocating for accurate skills language: The why, who, how and what of ousting ‘soft’ skills,[i] I summarised my advocacy work and the importance of understanding the value of social skills for a healthy and productive life.

Since then, Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) has replaced ‘soft’ skills with ‘invisible’ skills. Is this a useful shift, and how should we respond? Exploring these questions offers leadership opportunities for advocacy and strengthening capability.

The evolution from ‘soft’ skills to ‘invisible’ skills

The term ‘invisible’ skills first appeared in JSA’s National Skills Taxonomy Consultation Summary 2024, which lists Invisible Skills as: “Skills that involve subtle but crucial processes, such as adaptability, time management, and critical thinking, which support overall performance.”[ii] Social and Interactional Skills are grouped separately and includes ‘soft’ skills while Cognitive and Emotional Skills includes intrapersonal skills.

These groupings represent an overview of the specific skills that stakeholders[iii] identified. JSA acknowledges the overlap in categories and the feedback that “some terms are unlikely to be widely accepted by stakeholders (e.g., soft skills)” (p. 37).

In October 2025, Megan Lilly, Deputy Commissioner of JSA, published an opinion piece Stop Calling Them ‘Soft Skills’. Australia’s Economy Can’t Afford That Mistake.[iv] In this article Ms Lilly wrote: “Australia’s skills system still treats human capabilities as “soft”—and it’s costing productivity, mobility and fairness. It’s time to name these skills, value them properly and embed them in how we educate, hire and recognise.”

JSA’s Gender Economic Equality Team referred to ‘invisible’ skills in Paper 2, Education and training divides - Gendered skills, pathways and outcomes (2025).[v] When queried about their use of this term, they responded: with “ 'invisible skills' we are referring to skills that have been less visible or insufficiently described up until now”.

In February 2026 Dr Emma Cannen from JSA’s Gender Economic Equality Study, presented a CICA webinar summarising and explaining their gender equity papers. In it she referred to ‘invisible’ skills[vi] in the context of improved gender language in OSCA, including “improved recognition of leadership roles (and invisible skills) within female dominated occupations”.

It is encouraging that JSA is now deliberately using alternatives to ‘soft’ skills. The question to consider is whether this change improves skills language?

‘Invisible’ skills are widespread

The word ‘invisible’ is highly ambiguous and unsuitable as a formal skill category. Skills are seemingly ‘invisible’ for various reasons. Depending on where you live in Australia, some work and associated skills will not exist locally. Crane drivers are out of sight, hidden high-up in small cabins. Finished projects (e.g. dams, gardens, buildings) ‘hide’ much of the work involved.[vii] Some work is invisible because we lack interest or knowledge.

In official task listings the reality of some work is unstated, and therefore invisible. Take hairdressers. McCann and Page’s research report on the hair and beauty industry explains how salon work involves care for emotions, care for bodies, and care for identities.[viii] They conclude: “Research overwhelmingly suggests that salon work is not just about technical skills but involves complex social and emotional skills.” (p. 6) Yet the OSCA listing makes no mention of the intimacy, trust, and care involved.[ix]

There is merit in discussing skills as ‘invisible’ in the broader context of systemic (society-wide cultural norms, laws, policies), institutional (organisations’ policies and practices), and interpersonal (individual biases and beliefs) factors across the career ecosystem, provided this analysis applies broadly and translates into policy and program action. But if it’s only a substitute for ‘soft’, then ‘invisible’ has little to commend it.

Championing ‘human capabilities’

In April 2026 JSA published Forces at Work – Adult learning and the Australian Labour Market.[x] This report shows how skill change is mostly driven by a subset of skills, including ‘human capabilities’. The report states: “At the whole-of-labour-market level, around half of all skill change in the most recent period (2023-2025) was driven by 5 categories of skills: human capabilities*; business; law, regulation and compliance; health care; and information technology (IT). This finding has implications for the types of skills that may be most usefully targeted in upskilling initiatives.” (p. 12)

Their footnote (*) explains this preference, including avoiding ‘soft skills’ which implies “these capabilities are ‘natural’ or ‘intuitive’ rather than learned and improvable. Examples of human capabilities include critical thinking, problem solving, initiative, leadership, social skills, and physical abilities”.

Importantly, the report notes: “… technological change contributes to rising demand for complementary skills including human capabilities (e.g. critical thinking) and business skills. A growing body of research on skill complementarity in the context of technological change emphasises the importance of ‘skill bundles’, e.g. IT skills in combination with management, communication, advanced numeracy, social skills etc.” (p. 12)

Part of explaining the many flaws of ‘soft’ skills,[xi] is the need to recognise the complementarity of skills, particularly in relation to technological change, so it is refreshing to see JSA acknowledge both the inadequacy of ‘soft’ skills and associated binaries, and the importance of skill interconnectedness.

How our profession risks keeping skills invisible

Human capabilities, as expressed in the revised Professional Standards for Australian Career Development Practitioners,[xii] cover a wide range of interrelated social and emotional skills including demonstrating empathy, building rapport, ethical behaviour, cooperation, reframing, questioning, listening, collaboration, and flexibility with communication methods. While there has been some direct attention to specific human capabilities during career development conferences, webinars and workshops, this is a largely neglected area when it comes to specifics of theory and practice.

Two points to note about this prominence of human capabilities. Our Core Competency 3 is the only one that includes multiple, unexplained qualifiers such as ‘high-level’, ‘effectively’, ‘effective’. This is common practice in skill language about communication and interpersonal skills. But if we can’t articulate what these qualifiers mean behaviourally then we contribute to these skills’ invisibility. Discussing these skills as context-driven continua (foundational-advanced, basic-complex[xiii]) would help.

Secondly, it’s vital that we don’t support the ‘tech is tops’ narrative[xiv] by keeping digital literacy and information management (Core Competency 6) separate from, and elevated above,[xv] human capabilities. Information usually means data or content, but is rarely considered as communication. Cybercrime is not just a technical problem.[xvi] Common reasons why IT projects fail include ineffective leadership, poor communication, and lack of stakeholder involvement.

Education Services Australia has usefully raised the question: ‘When every job is tech-enabled, what is a ‘tech career’?’[xvii] Given technology underpins most jobs, the idea of ‘tech jobs’ as a distinct category is no longer valid (if it ever was). Career practitioners’ ability to reframe the ‘tech is tops’ narrative to promote a ‘tech AND human capabilities’ perspective is a core role in supporting clients and in advocacy.

A starting point is to ensure that all our tech-related professional development combines sets of interconnected, complementary skills – i.e. tech skills with specific interpersonal and intrapersonal skills and knowledge, with applications explored.

Career practitioners’ role in expanding their own and clients’ digital literacy skills,[xviii] informed by communication theory such as agenda-setting, discourse analysis and framing theory, is critical, even though it’s not specifically mentioned in Core Competency 1. Without this theory, risks include adopting simplistic models of communication,[xix] ineffectively responding to disinformation,[xx] and overlooking nuances and contextual factors.[xxi]

Continued advocacy for quality skills language is essential

The desire to group skills in taxonomies and frameworks seems unavoidable, yet much of this effort focuses on rigid false binaries and illusory commonalities. As the only professional body (to my knowledge) to take a stance on ‘soft’ skills, CDAA can credibly use its national voice to advocate for quality skills language.

Technology cannot replace career practitioners’ professional judgement. Social, cognitive and emotional skills are essential for making real-world career decisions as well as addressing major issues facing humanity.[xxii]

The seriousness of these issues for current and future generations means that our profession needs to shift the narrative on skills language and build widespread career literacy. How we label and categorise skills matters. Skills language affects how work is valued, rewarded and assigned. And vitally, it impacts people’s life choices and opportunities.

Dr Ann Villiers is an advocate for quality skills language. Her career roles included professional speaker, writer, author, educator and career coach specialising in the public sector.

[i] Available in Member Library, Professional Development, Member Publications

[ii] Jobs and Skills Australia, National Skills Taxonomy Consultation Summary 2024,

https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/consultations/national-skills-taxonomy-discussion-paper. These skills are listed under the heading Skills for Learning and Work, along with foundational, employability, leadership and wellbeing skills.

[iii] JSA’s main stakeholders relate to vocational education and training, higher education, and migration systems, and employers.

[iv] https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/insights/stop-calling-them-soft-skills-australias-economy-cant-afford-mistake

[v] https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/publications/education-and-training-divides-gendered-skills-pathways-and-outcomes

[vi] Study Paper 2, https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/publications/education-and-training-divides-gendered-skills-pathways-and-outcomes

[vii] Dr Ann Villiers, Shining a light on occupational inter-relationships, Article 14, Advocating for accurate skills language: The why, who, how and what of ousting ‘soft’ skills. Four Canberra-based projects were examined to explore the significance of interpersonal skills in technical occupations.

[viii] Addressing Care and Wellbeing in the Australian Hair and Beauty Industry: Caring Beyond Skin Deep, https://www.beautysalonproject.com/publications

[ix] https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/classifications/osca-occupation-standard-classification-australia/2024-version-1-0/browse-classification/3/39/392/3921/392132

[x] https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/publications/forces-work-adult-learning-and-australian-labour-market

[xi] The many problems with ‘soft’ skills are explained in Part 3, Advocating for accurate skills language: The why, who, how and what of ousting ‘soft’ skills.

[xii] CICA-Professional-Standards-for-Australian-Career-Development-Practitioners-5th-ed-published-2026.pdf. In addition to Core Competencies 3 (Communication and Interpersonal Skills) and 5 (Diversity and inclusion), human capabilities are found in 2 Labour Market Information, 4 Ethical Practice, 6 Digital Literacy, Emerging Technologies and Information Management, and 7 Professional Practice. Human capabilities are also spread across the Specialised Competencies.

[xiii] While skill development frameworks like ACER’s one on communication drill down into specific behaviours, their contextual application still needs exploring: https://research.acer.edu.au/ar_misc/75/

[xiv] The ‘tech is tops’ narrative is explained in Advocating for accurate skills language: The why, who, how and what of ousting ‘soft’ skills, Part 3.

[xv] How many times have you seen some aspect of social skills, i.e. the actual skills humans use to get along (like parenting, disaster support, care and service provision), described as ‘transformational’? Rarely, if ever!

[xvi] Annie-Mei Forster and Anika Guenov explain the flaws in the technical-versus-non-technical binary in Binary view of hard and soft skills impedes cyber responses, July 2025. https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/binary-view-of-hard-and-soft-skills-impedes-cyber-responses/

[xvii] When every job is tech-enabled, what is a ‘tech career’? April 2026

https://www.esa.edu.au/news-insights/when-every-job-is-tech-enabled-what-is-a-tech-career

[xviii] Digital literacy is more than digital skills. Compare Australia’s draft Digital Literacy Skills Framework with the more holistic European Digital Competence Framework.

https://www.dewr.gov.au/foundation-skills/digital-literacy-skills-framework-dlsf

https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/projects-and-activities/education-and-training/digital-transformation-education/digital-competence-framework-digcomp/digcomp-30_en

[xix] Communication theory is discussed in Advocating for accurate skills language: The why, who, how and what of ousting ‘soft’ skills, Part 3.

[xx] Ed Coper, Facts and Other Lies, Welcome to the Disinformation Age, Allen and Unwin 2022;

The Australia Institute, Facts and Other Lies with Ed Coper Recorded live on 16/03/2022, https://australiainstitute.org.au/event/facts-and-other-lies-with-ed-coper/

[xxi] For example: The ability to function effectively in intercultural settings has been termed "cultural intelligence". A study of nurses found that cultural intelligence is not a single construct, finding that knowing more about cultural differences (i.e. cultural knowledge) does not automatically translate to better care and may even get in the way. Nurses with higher cultural competence don’t always perform better – new study; Deficit discourse has real-world outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. https://humanrights.gov.au/resource-hub/theres-nothing-casual-about-racism/research-publication/summary-report-deficit-discourse-and-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health-policy

[xxii] These issues include the breakdown in information integrity; increasing mental health issues such as eco-anxiety, social isolation, and loneliness; declining social cohesion; unacceptable literacy levels.

Available in Member Library, Professional Development, Member Publications

[1] Jobs and Skills Australia, National Skills Taxonomy Consultation Summary 2024,

[1] JSA’s main stakeholders relate to vocational education and training, higher education, and migration systems, and employers.

[1] https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/insights/stop-calling-them-soft-skills-australias-economy-cant-afford-mistake

[1] https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/publications/education-and-training-divides-gendered-skills-pathways-and-outcomes

[1] Study Paper 2, https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/publications/education-and-training-divides-gendered-skills-pathways-and-outcomes

[1] Dr Ann Villiers, Shining a light on occupational inter-relationships, Article 14, Advocating for accurate skills language: The why, who, how and what of ousting ‘soft’ skills. Four Canberra-based projects were examined to explore the significance of interpersonal skills in technical occupations.

[1] Addressing Care and Wellbeing in the Australian Hair and Beauty Industry: Caring Beyond Skin Deep, https://www.beautysalonproject.com/publications

[1] https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/classifications/osca-occupation-standard-classification-australia/2024-version-1-0/browse-classification/3/39/392/3921/392132

[1] https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/publications/forces-work-adult-learning-and-australian-labour-market

[1] The many problems with ‘soft’ skills are explained in Part 3, Advocating for accurate skills language: The why, who, how and what of ousting ‘soft’ skills.

[1] CICA-Professional-Standards-for-Australian-Career-Development-Practitioners-5th-ed-published-2026.pdf. In addition to Core Competencies 3 (Communication and Interpersonal Skills) and 5 (Diversity and inclusion), human capabilities are found in 2 Labour Market Information, 4 Ethical Practice, 6 Digital Literacy, Emerging Technologies and Information Management, and 7 Professional Practice. Human capabilities are also spread across the Specialised Competencies.

[1] While skill development frameworks like ACER’s one on communication drill down into specific behaviours, their contextual application still needs exploring: https://research.acer.edu.au/ar_misc/75/

[1] The ‘tech is tops’ narrative is explained in Advocating for accurate skills language: The why, who, how and what of ousting ‘soft’ skills, Part 3.

[1] How many times have you seen some aspect of social skills, i.e. the actual skills humans use to get along (like parenting, disaster support, care and service provision), described as ‘transformational’? Rarely, if ever!

[1] Annie-Mei Forster and Anika Guenov explain the flaws in the technical-versus-non-technical binary in Binary view of hard and soft skills impedes cyber responses, July 2025. https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/binary-view-of-hard-and-soft-skills-impedes-cyber-responses/

[1] When every job is tech-enabled, what is a ‘tech career’? April 2026

https://www.esa.edu.au/news-insights/when-every-job-is-tech-enabled-what-is-a-tech-career

[1] Digital literacy is more than digital skills. Compare Australia’s draft Digital Literacy Skills Framework with the more holistic European Digital Competence Framework.

https://www.dewr.gov.au/foundation-skills/digital-literacy-skills-framework-dlsf

https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/projects-and-activities/education-and-training/digital-transformation-education/digital-competence-framework-digcomp/digcomp-30_en

[1] Communication theory is discussed in Advocating for accurate skills language: The why, who, how and what of ousting ‘soft’ skills, Part 3.

[1] Ed Coper, Facts and Other Lies, Welcome to the Disinformation Age, Allen and Unwin 2022;

The Australia Institute, Facts and Other Lies with Ed Coper Recorded live on 16/03/2022, https://australiainstitute.org.au/event/facts-and-other-lies-with-ed-coper/

[1] For example: The ability to function effectively in intercultural settings has been termed "cultural intelligence". A study of nurses found that cultural intelligence is not a single construct, finding that knowing more about cultural differences (i.e. cultural knowledge) does not automatically translate to better care and may even get in the way. Nurses with higher cultural competence don’t always perform better – new study; Deficit discourse has real-world outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. https://humanrights.gov.au/resource-hub/theres-nothing-casual-about-racism/research-publication/summary-report-deficit-discourse-and-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health-policy

[1] These issues include the breakdown in information integrity; increasing mental health issues such as eco-anxiety, social isolation, and loneliness; declining social cohesion; unacceptable literacy levels.