Whenever talk veers around to education standards in our engineering colleges and polytechnics you can rest assured that at least one speaker will hold forth on why all the discourse about improving mathematical skills or laboratory practice is a waste of time and why the real thing that students nowadays lack and need to be taught are "soft skills".

I invariably feel compelled to raise my hand and ask the speaker what she means by "soft skills". And I invariably get the answer, that soft skills are different from "hard skills" like mathematical expertise, ...