Transversal Competences and Employability of University Students: Converging towards Service-Learning

Abstract

We are living in times of great transformations within the field of education and the labor market. These changes are connected and have to do with an expanded knowledge society, whose implications reach the levels of employability in times of uncertainty. Within this framework, the main purpose of our study is to perform a theoretical analysis and an empirical approach to the influence that transversal competences (soft skills) may have on the degree of employability of university students. We have identified some of those competences and we have tested them with a sample of 83 employers and 1249 students using a Likert scale. Our results show the interest of employers in the mastery of transversal competences and inequalities in terms of students’ perception thereof. We did not find any significant differences between students starting their degree and those who were about to complete it. However, we did find differences between the students who participated in experiential activities and those who did not, in favor of the former. Due to the importance of experiential learning in our results, we dedicate our discussion to theoretically exploring whether the pedagogical approach of Service-Learning (SL) might contribute to a better connection between transversal competences and employability.

International Service-Learning for forest fire management and employability in higher education: a qualitative research

“…The empirical research on S-L to date suggests a positive correlation between the participation in S-L activities and the development of key soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, leadership and more (Astin & Sax, 1998;Eyler & Giles, 1999;Simons & Cleary, 2006;Bornatici & Vacchelli, 2021;Santos Rego, Mella Núñez, Naval, & Vázquez Verdera, 2021;Santos Rego et al, 2022). Previous research has also connected S-L participation to building relationships with peers, faculty and the community (Simons & Cleary, 2006;Mitchell & Rost-Banik, 2019, Bornatici & Vacchelli, 2021.…”

A Keyword Co-Occurrence Analysis of Research on Service Learning: Conceptual Foci and Emerging Research Trends

“…Some of the frequently researched topics include sustainability and sustainable development [138][139][140][141], social innovation and entrepreneurship [142][143][144][145], graduate employability (e.g., Refs. [146][147][148]), and university social responsibility [149][150][151].…”

Service-learning in engineering: analysis of students experiences in development cooperation

“…50th Annual Conference in September 2022 74 Several authors as Fuertes et al [10] studied how SL influenced the interpersonal skills requested by the community. Researchers recognized that it could be worked through experiential and practical methodologies in the learning process so SL could play a key role, also when employability is considered [11].…”

“…An empirical approach to the influence that transversal competencies (soft skills) may have on the degree of employability of university students has been conducted in [11]. They found differences between the students who participated in experiential activities and those who did not, in favor of the former and explored theoretically whether the pedagogical approach of SL might contribute to a better connection between transversal competences and employability.…”