AQU Catalunya presents the results of the #Skills4Employability project
The Erasmus+ project, Enhancing the presence of Soft Skills in Higher Education Curricula (Skills4Employability), ended in October with a conference to present the results.

Skills4Employability (Enhancing the presence of Soft Skills in Higher Education Curricula), is an Erasmus project that aims to help universities improve the quality of education by introducing social skills (soft skills) into the curriculum and assess the extent to which they match the skills valued in the labour market.
The consortium carrying out the project was led by CONNEX (Belgium), with three other partners and AQU Catalunya taking part: the University of Sapienza (Italy), the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (Romania) and Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania).
The guides resulting from the project were presented at the conference on 19 October.
1) A guide to integrating soft skills into the university curriculum
In drawing up the guide, preliminary research was carried out on the definition and relevance of social skills in the context of higher education, as well as of national and international initiatives that promote their development to improve the employability of graduates, establishing a common skill set that will later serve as a basis for the preparation of the Guide for their assessment.
2) A guide to assessing soft skills
The most suitable systems were identified to assess the achievement of social skills based on national and international scientific and academic contributions, to ultimately establish integral guidelines for the assessment of the soft skills validated in the first guide.
Both guides can be downloaded from the project page.
The main purposes of these guides are to:
- Help universities to be more successful in providing graduates with the right social skills.
- Support the design and updating of curricula to improve employability and the acquisition of relevant skills.
- Incorporate the teaching and assessment of social skills in the university curriculum.
- Establish alignment protocols and tools to link assessments to standards and curricula.
- Acquire a more detailed understanding of social skills and their impact on employment.
- Improve the matching of competencies to support competitiveness and innovation at the local, regional and national levels.
- Raise awareness of the importance of social skills in the modern labour market.
- Integrate the skill needs of the labour market into higher education.
- Facilitate graduates' transition to the labour market.