The GiLE Journal of Skills Development (GJSD), established in 2020, is an open-access, double-blind peer-reviewed international scientific journal on soft skills development for the Digital Age (eISSN 2732-3781), published by the GiLE Foundation.  

Aims & Scope

The GiLE Journal of Skills Development (GJSD) has been established by the GiLE Foundation as an open-access publication to promote research and ongoing dialogue relating to soft skills training and lifelong learning. It thereby contributes to the mission of the GiLE Foundation to support young people specifically. The GJSD also offers a publication opportunity to those whose interests lie in this field.

‘Soft’ or ‘transferable’ skills are crucial to lifelong employability as the 4th Industrial Revolution gathers pace and automation spreads throughout business and society. An adaptable and resilient workforce and society will increasingly need these innately human skills. GJSD therefore also aims to be a valuable, open-access resource for all those who aim to equip rising talent for a future that is likely to involve ongoing skills development, upskilling and reskilling. All of our published content can be utilised by researchers, corporate learning and development practitioners, and those seeking to pursue their own personal and professional development.

GJSD welcomes research papers related to the three core focus areas of the GiLE Foundation: Career Planning, Character Building, and Communication Skills. It encourages submissions from everyone (e.g. students, researchers, educators, trainers, and policymakers) whose work relates to competence development. Contributions are welcomed from any relevant discipline (e.g. agriculture, business, education, healthcare, natural sciences, etc) if they are appropriately linked to the focus area of the journal. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodology papers may all be accepted.

Although a scientific journal, GJSD also features ‘Food for Thought’ and 'Guest Column' sections where academics and those with a non-academic background may contribute to dialogue with our readership. Consequently, GJSD welcomes data-based essays and case studies from the worlds of both education and work that relate to leadership training for young people, support for new entrepreneurs, and training that upskills recent graduates, apprentices and other inexperienced hires.

A section called 'Policy and Social Challenges' invites submissions from students, graduates, employers, career counsellors, academics, and anyone involved in policy decision-making. We encourage submissions to identify and discuss an existing policy or social challenge and offer potential solutions or new directions to address this challenge.

Special focus: Early-career researchers

GJSD especially welcomes research articles from Masters and PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and young professionals. It aims to showcase the work of early-career researchers, as well as to offer them an efficient and free-of-charge route to publication.

Authors who submit their papers specifically to this section can expect an even more constructive peer-review process, whereby reviewers will provide targeted evaluation with more supportive feedback to motivate young people and that improves the quality of their papers.