Abstract:

More and more young people are unemployed. Young European graduates face severe difficulties in finding the first job. At the same time, employers have problems in finding the suitable people.

Huge expectations are set on education in offering the demanded solutions. Especially higher education should be capable of assuring that their graduates have the necessary skills such as, e.g., be agile, have a solid understanding of how the workplaces work, be prepared see how their skills fit into to the changing environments of working life and for moving across jobs and sectors.

The situation becomes more complicated through the substantial transformation taking place in education. It changes the position of higher education radically. Increasing number of students actively search for attractive learning opportunities and complete traditional formal instruction in various on- and off-line learning environments. A growing trend is also to complete the higher education diploma by chosen certificates which together gain substantial importance in the eyes of employers.

This paper presents the results of a study on the skills' requirement set by employers and the means of assessing them among the candidates in the recruitment. The results were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis with the "Entrepreneurship Competence Framework" as a theoretical background. According to the results, much emphasis is set on entrepreneurship although only occasionally any measures are taken to confirm their presence or absence among candidates through the recruitment process.

The paper discusses various approaches in solving the skill-mismatch. Digitalization which modifies working life can genuinely bring also the best solutions for solving the problem.

Keywords:

Skills mismatch, higher education, entrepreneurship, stakeholders, roles and tasks.