EHEA - Employability of graduates - The role of higher education

To succeed in shaping their individual lives, graduates are due to dispose of a bundle of generic and subject-specific competences. Higher education institutions are all-time experts in providing subject-specific knowledge but less experienced in cultivating “soft skills” at the same time. These generic skills (e.g. methodological, social and intercultural competences, ethical values) are essential for finding, retaining or developing the individual position in society. Study programmes and modules have to be designed in a way which leaves room for all the components that only as a whole build its profile. To meet the expectations not only of employers, public and private institutions but also of the actual and future students, higher education teachers and administrators themselves have to face continuous change.

Today’s graduates need to combine transversal, multidisciplinary and innovation skills and competences with up-to-date subject-specific knowledge so as to be able to contribute to the wider needs of society and the labour market.

The Bucharest Communiqué, 2012. More...