"People are going to college increasingly to become engineers, accountants, computer systems specialists. They need those high-grade skills that you say to compete in the world economy and get a good paying job. But soft skills are very important," says Dr. Walden, a professor of agricultural and resource economics. "Soft skills are skills in communication, in organization, in writing, in interpersonal skills. Soft skills really allow you to get along with your workers, your fellow workers, number one, and then to pass on what you know and organize your skills with others.

"And surveys of businesses today show that soft skills are lacking today in many workers just at a time when they are becoming much more important," he says. "So these are these skills again that, again, teach kids how to write, teach kids how to speak, that teach kids how to coordinate themselves with others.

"And this is putting pressure on colleges as well as K to 12 to really ramp these skills up at the same time that those institutions are expected to again teach kids in a particular discipline or field. So, again, it just makes the process of education that much more complicated but still very important."