ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a more accurate conceptualization of soft skills. It presents the case of a soft skills development program, created and implemented at a Canadian business school. The course on soft skills development, which was created and implemented at a Canadian business school, also provided strong evidence to confirm that each of the dimensions of soft skills develops by way of the triadic reciprocal causation that characterizes the constant interaction between personal, behavioral, and environmental factors. The chapter examines some relevant French literature on social and relational skills. The French literature on the development of soft skills raises the question of the most favorable learning environment. In the literature in French, there has been a consensus that at least a part of what are called “social and relational competences” is learned. A. Bandura’s social cognitive theory makes it possible to conceptualize this link between soft skills and the social environment.
