Abstract:

Training students to be not only productive players in labour market, but also to become proactive citizens are critical dimensions of Higher Education mission. More than a high specialized workforce, job market is demanding for flexible and adjustable graduates, who, effectively, can contribute successfully to the job requirements. In fact, job market hunt for graduates who, besides traditional hard skills, have conceptual, instrumental and interpersonal skills that allow them to work in complex and multicultural environments. Soft skills, also called as 21st century, generic, or transferable skills, integrate those human capital competencies, such as talents, skills and capabilities of Higher Education graduates, which would be relevant to a wide range of task and situations beyond the academic context.

A broad range of theoretical models encompasses diverse approaches about the distinction of dissimilar dimensions and typologies of soft skills. Based on these insights, we propose the design of a conceptual analysis tool to be used to identify what soft skills Higher Education institutions intend to promote in their students. A systematic literature review, based not only in research papers, but also, in institutional and official data was performed. Our conceptual analysis model includes 21 categories, such as critical thinking, decision-making, problem solving, ethical and deontological principles, communication skills, or lifelong learning are examples soft/transversal skills. For each code, a definition and an example of soft skill is listed. This conceptual analysis model is theoretical and empirically tested, based on the intercoder agreement. The present effort to designing a conceptual analysis model allow us to better realize how soft skills are conceptualized by academia. Portuguese case is focused in this work as a reference to a possible subsequent international analysis. In fact, a focus on soft skills allows higher education institutions to reframe how they think about the relationship among education, academic curriculum, and employment.

Keywords:

Soft skills, higher education, job market, curriculum.