Soft skill acquisition is a topic of career readiness for high school students. Soft skills are known as noncognitive skills, life skills, or people skills and are important to develop in high school students for career readiness. Organizational leaders understand technical and professional skills without developed soft skills do not achieve organizational goals, which has resulted in qualifications for hiring to shift towards recruitment of employees with a blend of hard and soft skills. The problem addressed in this study was that high school graduates possess insufficient soft skills necessary for workforce success. This qualitative phenomenological study explored the perceptions and experiences of high school students after completing a workforce preparation training program. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was utilized to reveal student perceptions by engaging Kirkpatrick's training evaluation model framework to determine the effectiveness of the program. Nine student participants were interviewed about the experience of training. Themes related to how students described their soft skills included: the ability to communicate improved following soft skill training, skills gained compared to peers created a desire to further enhance soft skills and increase in recognition of personal responsibility. Students described their instructional experiences with the following themes: supportive staff influenced learning skills, instruction assists students in recognizing necessary skills, and individualized instruction format promotes self-teaching. As a result of the course, students expressed the following outcomes: confidence that soft skill training prepares students for future careers, and experience causes students to become goal orientated. Finally, students revealed completing the course increased their drive to finish tasks. Institutions need instructional practice delivering targeted skills that impact those an individual student lacks combined with students acting as agents of their own education. Future research to explore employer perception of training effectiveness is needed; other recommendations include a quantitative study of skill proficiency achieved by students from training and a longitudinal study throughout stages of employment determining student perception changes overtime. All high school students need soft skill training before graduation; soft skill training curriculum should be in a student-led format, and program staff should receive professional development to improve their effectiveness in building supportive relationships with students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]