Transversal Competencies, Higher Education and Employment

Dear Colleagues,

The university of our times and, foreseeably, of the coming years, will continue to strengthen a conception of learning more closely linked to the development of competences by students than to the mere mastery of academic content in disciplines of graduate or even postgraduate studies.

Without asserting a radical dissociation between the two approaches, the world of employment has long been demanding, from higher education, solid training of its graduates, that is, one capable of combining substantive knowledge in a field with the best skills in order to identify and solve problems in their personal and social sphere of reference. This coincides, in substance, with what was pointed out by certain official reports, such as those deriving from the latest press releases and declarations regarding the European Higher Education Area (Paris, 2018; Rome, 2020), emphasizing the social dimension of higher education and commitment to the professional future of graduates.

The perspective of basing higher education on an approach of adequately defined competences starting from professional requirements and the labor market has led to the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial society, which is clearly more complex. However, the unstoppable globalization of the economy and the consequent acceleration of changes in the productive structure due to the drive of digital technology and the need to manage profound transformations in the cultural sphere due to the intensity of migratory flows, among other factors, have enhanced the role of transversal competences in and for quality higher education, attributing to it potential competitive advantages for access to the labor market.

Admitting a certain ambiguity in the way these competences are conceptualized, they are nevertheless often referred to as ‘key competences’, ‘21^st century skills’, or even ‘soft skills’. That is why, it would be difficult to justify their marginalization by higher education institutions when, in addition, they recognize the need for the students to be informed about job opportunities. Hence, the commitment we must make to ensure that students improve the skills that best correlate with such opportunities.

In summary, the scope or purpose of the Special Issue is to develop a deeper, interdisciplinary understanding of how higher education institutions, along with employers and communities, can face up to this challenge. We should incidentally assume that employment of graduates is already incorporating elements linked to capabilities, skills, and dispositions that are less formal than in the past.

Thus, all papers addressing the following subthemes are welcome:

• Theoretical and epistemological analysis of competences in higher education and their links with the world of employment.
• Innovation, transversal competences, and employment.
• Active methodologies and development of transversal competences.
• Community and practice seen as a context for transversal competences.
• Non-formal education, social participation, and development of transversal competences.
• Evaluation of transversal competences.
• Links between specific and transversal competences.
• Recognition, validation, and accreditation of transversal competences.
• Study of transversal competences from the employers’ perspective.
• Competences for employability in a knowledge society.

Deadlines

• Full manuscript deadline: 28/02/2022

You may send your manuscript up until the deadline. Submitted papers should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. We also encourage authors to send a short abstract or tentative title to the Editorial Office in advance preferably to [email protected], or the leading guest editor ([email protected]).

References

Azqueta, A., & Naval, C. (2019). Entrepreneurship education: a proposal for human development. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 77(274), 517-533. Doi: 10.22550/REP77-3-2019-03

Hager, P., & Gonczi, A. (1996). What is competence? Medical Teacher, 18(1).

Humburg, M., de Grip, A., & van der Velden, R. K. W. (2017). Which skills protect graduates against a slack labour market? International Labour Review, 156(1), 25-43. Doi: 10.1111/j.1564-913X.2015.00046.x

Kottmann, A., Vossensteyn, J.J., Kolster, R., Veidemane, A., Blasko, Zs., Biagi, F., Sánchez-Barrioluengo, M. (2019). Social Inclusion Policies in Higher Education: Evidence from the EU. Overview of major widening participation policies applied in the EU 28. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Menezes, I., Coelho, M., Amorim, J.P., Gomes, I., Pais, S., & Coimbra, J.L. (2018). Inovação e compromisso social universitário: a universidade “e o chão que ela pisa”. In A. Villa Sánchez (Eds.), Tendencias actuales de las transformaciones de las universidades en una nueva sociedad digital (pp.  395-407). Vigo: Foro Internacional de Innovación Universitaria.

Naval, C. & Arbués, E. (2016). El aprendizaje-servicio y la transición desde la educación superior al mundo del trabajo.  En M.A. Santos Rego, M.A. (Ed.), Sociedad del conocimiento. Aprendizaje e Innovación en la Universidad (pp. 219-246). Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva.

Naval, C., & Arbués, E. (2017). El aprendizaje-servicio en la educación superior. Las competencias profesionales. In J. A. Ibáñez Martín & J. L. Fuentes (Eds.), Educación y capacidades: hacia un nuevo enfoque del desarrollo humano (pp. 189-207). Madrid: Dykinson.

Santos Rego, M. A., Ferraces, M. J., Mella, I., & Vázquez Rodríguez, A. (2020). University, civic-social competences, and the Labor market. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 78(276), 213-232. Doi: 10.22550/REP78-2-2020-06.

Santos Rego, M. A., Lorenzo Moledo, M., & Vázquez Rodríguez, A. (2018). Educación no formal y Empleabilidad de la juventud. Madrid: Síntesis.

Succi, C., & Canovi, M. (2019). Soft skills to enhance graduate employability: comparing students and employers’ perceptions. Studies in Higher Education. Doi: 10.1080/03075079.2019.1585420

Suleman, F. (2016). Employability Skills of Higher Education Graduates: Little Consensus on a Much-discussed Subject. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 228, 169-174. Doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.07.025

Prof. Miguel A. Santos Rego
Prof. Sofia Castanheira Pais
Prof. Concepción Naval
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• higher education
• university
• employment
• employability
• employers
• transversal competences
• generic competences
• evaluation
• social responsibility, lifelong learning