Abstract:

Although the acquisition of soft skills is highly valued in the labour market, the best way to acquire and measure them during the university education stage is still an issue that deserves further investigation. In this work, we use an indicator constructed from various surveys to delve deep into the issue. The surveys had a double objective: to build the indicator and to help the students' self-reflective process. The indicator used reflects the perception that first grade students have about their level of acquisition of the competence of self-learning ability and responsibility. The competence of self-learning ability and responsibility is one of the six transversal competences of the University of Barcelona. This research was carried out with the first-year groups of the Sociology degree from the University of Barcelona during the 2019-20 academic year, hence looking at the initial levels of acquisition of the competence. It was applied in two subjects that took place in the first and second semester of the academic year. The objective of the research work is twofold: on the one hand, it aims to explore the continuity in the acquisition of the competence and, on the other hand, it aims to see the extent to which the perception that the students had of their competence level was correlated with the grades obtained. Initial conclusions indicate that those students who perceive that they have difficulties to set goals and fulfil their purposes obtain worse grades than those who make a greater adjustment between purposes and reality. Likewise, a positive correlation is observed between perception of acquisition of the competence and the grade obtained. However, when we test the hypothesis that a certain continuity in the acquisition of the competence throughout the first year of the degree exists, the statistical significance of the correlation is lost. Research suggests the convenience of improving the homogenization of data collection mechanisms, while advancing in appropriate contextualization of results through complementary qualitative tools.

Keywords:

Soft skills, labour market, learning perceptions, indicator.