SkillMill: Helping Students in Higher Education Identify, Refine and Communicate Soft Skills gained during Studies Abroad Erasmus Project

Project Title

SkillMill: Helping Students in Higher Education Identify, Refine and Communicate Soft Skills gained during Studies Abroad

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits); Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

In 2014, the ‘Erasmus Impact Study’ (EIS) sought to answer the question of whether or not studies and internships abroad are beneficial to university students’ employability. Following quantitative and qualitative studies of 56,733 students and 652 European employers, EIS reached (among others) the following major conclusions relevant for this project proposal (edited and summarized):

On average, 92% of employers are looking for transversal skills/soft skills in the people they recruit, such as openness to and curiosity about new challenges, problem-solving and decision-making skills, confidence and tolerance towards other people’s personal values and behaviors. EIS also found that the transversal skills/soft skills important to employers also are skills that improve during studies abroad. 81% of the students in the study perceived an improvement in their transversal skills when they came back, and 52% showed an increase in actual skills (as measured by Memo© Mobility Scan).

In short, studies abroad seem to provide training in exactly the type of transversal/soft skills that employers value. However, the study ‘Hidden Competences’ (2014) from the Finnish National Agency for Education (also cited by EIS), emphasized that this connection might not always be automatic, nor guaranteed. The study reached the conclusion that while skills and knowledge that result from international experiences are the kind of competences that the labor market needs, employers do not necessarily make the connection between study abroad experiences, and acquisition of these specific skills.

In 2019, LinkedIn’s “Global Talent Trends 2019 Report” seems to confirm these conclusions. The report states that 92% of 5000 recruiters say that Soft Skills “matter as much or more than hard skills when they hire”, but also that “most companies still struggle to assess them accurately”. This “growing disconnect between the demand for Soft Skills and the inability to identify them” leads the LinkedIn report to call Soft Skill “what everyone wants, but no one knows how to find”.

In light of this, the SkillMill Project aims to increase the synergy between Study Abroad Offices and Career Services, offer a structured approach to Soft Skills development during studies abroad, and ways to communicate these skills to recruiters.

To achieve this, this project aims to launch an Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership in a collaboration between Study Abroad Offices and Career Services, and develop an innovative Digital Learning Toolkit. Targeting Soft Skills specifically, the aim is to provide exchange students with the following:

∟ Knowledge in what soft skills are, and in which contexts they develop.
∟ Understanding of which specific Soft Skills employers value, and why.
∟ Insight in specific contexts one may encounter during studies abroad, in and outside of school, which may provide learning opportunities for soft skills.
∟ Theoretical tools to conceptualize and connect one’s own actual experiences during studies abroad, to relevant soft skill development.
∟ Guidance in how to package and communicate these experiences, insights and personal developments narratively, in a way that is beneficial in a recruitment situation.

To summarize, the goal of the project is to give exchange students insight into their own soft skills development, and raise their ability to communicate it, on order to maximize the benefit of their study abroad experiences in recruitment situations.

Over the course of three years, experts in career counselling and skill recognition, studies abroad as well as media production and digital learning will:
∟ Create a written “Soft Skills Insight and Communication Guide”
∟ Exchange ideas and feedback with stakeholders
∟ Oversee the turning of the “Guide” into a digital learning toolkit by a Technical Team
∟ Oversee the implementation/testing of the learning tool on outgoing exchange students
∟ Oversee the evaluation of these students’ developed Soft Skills and Communication Skills
∟ Implement the “Toolkit” into their organizations

The finished digital Soft Skills Insight and Communication learning toolkit will be provided free of charge to any organization or individual who wishes to use it.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 281111 Eur

Project Coordinator

UPPSALA UNIVERSITET & Country: SE

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITETET I STAVANGER
• HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
• TARTU ULIKOOL