Poor soft skills are linked to a range of labour market problems: high staff turnover/difficulty recruiting (particularly in the young); lack of ability to compete; inability to cope with change; reasons for staff dismissal & problems in school to work transition. Several European employer surveys endorse the following soft skills as essential but often missing: team working, communication, problem solving & motivation.VET providers in Italy, Sweden, NL, Romania, Greece & Germany responded to these identified skills problems by offering new approaches to training to develop these skills using learning outcomes/competence-based approaches. NESSIE developed educational materials in cooperation with VET providers & employers to both train workers in the workplace & unemployed job seekers, and importantly assess these essential soft skills. The training & assessment methods are based on an innovative approach, proven to work with disadvantaged learners in VET classroom contexts (TOI MASS 2009), which have now been adapted & enhanced for use in the work place and with employment training in 7 countries. High unemployment rates in Europe, plus growing recognition of the importance of soft skills demonstrates the need for better links between VET & employers. NESSIE offered innovation in workplace training, linking with HR development to implement work-based learning consistent with labour market needs. NESSIE strategically and operationally involved labour market organisations & VET (companies, VET providers, public & private employment services & public authorities). Cooperation took place within the consortium and through established national networks which supported the project. This diverse group of actors together ensured that resulting products accurately satisfied skill needs.Products were targeted at 2 distinct groups: employed people in the workplace in a range of sectors; & job seekers on employment training programmes. Starting in October 2012 the project ran for 2 years. It began with research and needs analysis, followed by adaptation and development of existing products to suit the new target groups. Learning materials (accredited to SCQF for EQF translation) and an accompanying Train the trainer toolkit were tested with 500 participants & evaluated. Results of this testing were published & promoted through networks, various dissemination events and at final EU wide event in Brussels.End users experienced positive impacts such as improved confidence in job search and improved performance at work. These impacts were measured by evaluation.