(1316) EXPLORING THE REQUIREMENTS FOR TRANSVERSAL COMPETENCES IN UNIVERSITY GRADUATES: BUILDING A COMPETENCE MEASUREMENT SCALE TO INFORM THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

摘要

Empowering higher education students with transversal competencies that can ease their transition to the labour market is a growing concern among entities with responsibilities in education. Transversal competencies refer to generic aspects related to knowledge, skills, and capabilities that any graduate must have achieved to enable a seamless transition and integration in the professional life. The development of transversal competences is a timely and generalized concern among educators, employers, students and policy makers, integrating the agendas and debates for public policies concerning the future of work and qualifications. This article presents the results of an exploratory study focusing on development of a measurement scale to assess transversal competences. The purpose is to contribute to the body of knowledge on transversal competences, developing actionable tools that can inform the development of education and training responses to meet the demands of job market and young graduates. The development of the scale was conducted within the scope of the Erasmus+ project ActYouth-EU, involving data collection in four European Countries: Cyprus, Poland, Portugal and Lithuania. The proposed instrument is composed by 21 transversal competences, covering personal and generic dimensions, such as: Adaptability, Commercial Awareness, Attention to Detail, Communication, Proactivity, Costumer orientation, Passion, Foreign languages, Integrity, Multi-tasking, Social relations, Conflict management, Self-awareness, Smart thinking, Autonomy, Critical thinking, Time management, Engagement, Tolerance to stress, ICT and Personal Development. The application of the scale also allowed for a preliminary characterization of the transversal competences’ profile of young graduates, from a pan European perspective, informing the discussion about the priorities for of innovation in Higher Education for the qualification in those domains.