From Studio to Workplace: Exploring Soft Skill Acquisition in UK Contemporary Dance Students / Ailsa Hobbins (2025)

Soft skills, the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills essential for academic, professional, and personal success, are recognised as critical for employability and well-being. While research has documented the important of soft skills, little is understood about how they are developed. This study investigated self-reported soft skill development among undergraduate students enrolled in UK vocational contemporary dance programs. A mixed-method, cross-sectional design was employed. Quantitative data were collected via a 59-item Soft Skills Measurement Questionnaire (SSMQ), assessing 15 soft skills. Twelve participants, currently enrolled and recent graduated from UK vocational contemporary dance programs, completed the questionnaire. Mean scores were compared with normative data from a broader UK higher education cohort (Otermans et al., 2023). Qualitative follow-up interviews were conducted to contextualise self-reported scores and examine participants’ perceptions of their soft skill development. Interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results indicated that contemporary dance students reported high levels of originality, adaptive decision-making, and conflict management, with results averaging above the normative HE benchmarks. Conversely, participants identified lower confidence in self-confidence, and stress management, reflecting the influence of vocational training cultures prioritising technical compliance and performance discipline. Thematic analysis revealed that soft skill development is shaped by individual characteristics, HE curriculum structures, reflective practices, and learning experience during dance training. These findings highlight vocational contemporary dance programs as environments that cultivate transferable skill development, critical for the modern workplace, particularly creativity, collaboration, and adaptability. They underscore the need to extend educational policy and STEAM discourse, supporting the integration of arts-based coursework to enrich soft skill development across disciplines.