Among expectations and reality - young workers’ soft skills Cover Image

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Among expectations and reality - young workers’ soft skills

Author(s): Magdalena Jasińska, Karolina Podgórska
Subject(s): Education
Published by: Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie, Fundacja Promocji i Akredytacji Kierunków Ekonomicznych
Keywords: young workers; soft skills; employability; labour market; academic education; eLene4work; employers; focus groups; methodology for developing soft skills

Summary/Abstract: Many documents issued by the European Union and Human Resources experts point out that so called „soft” skills are closely connected with employability, particularly of young people entering the labour market. Nevertheless, at present, EU countries use different methodologies and approaches to the teaching and development of those skills, which leads to a mismatch between academic education and requirements of the labour market.In the project eLene4work: Learning to learn for new digital soft skills for employability ten European countries conduct research on soft skills expected by employers from new workers and possibilities to develop them (using also ICT tools) during studies. First step was to collect information about soft skills (what is needed, what is important, what should be improved etc.) during Focus Groups organized in each partner country. During these meetings the same set of questions was asked to participants. Results will be used to create common methodology for developing soft skills during studies. In this article results of Focus Groups in Poland are presented. The most interesting findings such as definitions of soft skills, list of most important ones, difficulties in their development and possibilities to solve problem of lack of those skills are described, not only from the perspective of student/young employee, but also employers and academic teachers.

  • Issue Year: 62/2015
  • Issue No: 5
  • Page Range: 16-20
  • Page Count: 5
  • Language: Polish