Abstract:

Currently, the professional opportunities of a recent chemistry graduate are greatly improved with interdisciplinary knowledge as well as soft skills. Thus, the acquisition of this knowledge and skills can often make a difference in improving the employability of students. However, even though we teachers are clear about the need for interdisciplinary knowledge, students usually show a natural resistance to multidisciplinary works, since on many occasions it implies leaving their comfort zone and delving into subjects further from their knowledge. As a consequence a feeling of insecurity or even fear appears that later can turn into rejection. However, the reception of the 2030 Agenda by the students pushed for important support for the extended theses of “Fridays for future” could be a helpful tool. With this, the SDGs can be used as a perfect Trojan horse to get students out of their comfort zones. In this work, an interdisciplinary working group has been formed capable of adding a plethora of different perspectives in order to create a series of challenges, based on SDGs, to be addressed in the students' Final Degree/Master Projects. Once the challenges were designed, the interest of the potential students was evaluated by means of a few small tests to assess their reception. Thus, the challenges with the best evaluations will be launched in the form of Master and undergraduate thesis.

Keywords:

SFGs, Undergraduate, Master, soft skills, interdisciplinary.