Abstract:

The term ‘transversal competences’ is defined as competences which are relevant to jobs and occupations that these may also have been acquired through non-work activities or through participation in education or training (1). The development of these skills is essential for increasing the productivity of enterprises and improving the employability of workers. In fact, the European Commission works with EU countries to strengthen 'key competences' knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed by all for this purpose. According to the last EU Council Recommendation (2), in 2015, one in five pupils had serious difficulties in developing sufficient reading, mathematic or science skills. In some countries up to one third of adults are proficient at only the lowest levels in literacy and numeracy and 44% of the Union population have low or no (19%) digital skills. On the other hand, the competence requirements have changed with more jobs being subject to automation, technologies playing a bigger role in all areas of work and life, and entrepreneurial, social and civic competences becoming more relevant in order to ensure the ability to adapt to change. Thus, investing in basic skills has become more relevant than ever.

This work focuses on the challenge of assessing transversal competences in first course students of the Degree in Gastronomy and Culinary Arts at the University of Alicante in order to coordinate, design and implement the educational actions by the teaching staff to improve the teaching quality and the learning process of the student. In particular, the following competences were analyzed: Ability to communicate and dialogue, capacity to analyze and synthesize information, capacity to reason critically and present clear arguments, skills in computer science, reading and understanding a foreign language and the ability to present formal documents according to academic standards. As a result of this project, a series of new teaching tools have been developed with the aim of being incorporated into the next course teaching guides to improve the student skills with a positive impact in their future employability as an expert in the Gastronomy field.

References:
[1] Brewer, L. (2013), Enhancing youth employability: What? Why? and How? Guide to core work skills. ISBN: 9789221275343.
[2] Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning (2018/C 189/01).

Keywords:

Gastronomy, Culinary Arts, Transversal Competences, Degree Students.