1. Maria Cinque – Alessandra La Marca
Carla Lojacono
Maria Cinque – Alessandra La Marca
Panel Student/Young worker
Soft Skills employability and digital
Saturday, 20th May - Common session elene4work and Leadership school

2. SKILL SHortage
In the last few years many studies, survyes, even newspapers articles highlighted a problem of the labour market: they reported a skill shortage among employers

3. USA Surveys in the USA Deloitte Survey (2011)
more than 600,000 positions in manufacturing went unfilled due to a skill shortage
Deloitte Survey (2011)
nearly 20% of employers cited a lack of soft skills as a key reason they couldn't hire needed employees
Manpower Group’ Survey (2012)
"professionalism" or "work ethic" is the top "applied" skill that younger workers lack
Human Resource Management (2012)
2,138 human resource managers: “a strong work ethic”, “a positive attitude” etc.
Career Builder Survey (2014)
For example we know that in the USA more than positions in manufacturing went unfullfilled due to a skill shortage in employees and this skill shortage concerns mainly applied skills, such as work ethic, punctuality and professionalism

4. Europe “Closely connected with employability”
An agenda for new skills and new jobs (EESC, 2010)
“They are not taught at University”
Rethinking education strategy. Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes (2013)
“Toward a more skilled workforce”
New skills and jobs in Europe: Pathways towards full employment (2014)
According to many documents issued by the European Union, soft skills are closely connected with employability but they are not thought at University as the recent Rethinking education strategy underlines.
We need a more skilled workforce, and opportunities should be given to young people to develop those soft skills, that can help them to make a successful transition from full-time education to the labour market.

5. Parallel UniverseS
Education providers are twice as likely as employers and youths to rate youths as prepared.
In their global report, McKinsey (2012) concludes that providers, employers, and young people are operating in “parallel universes.” For example, in Europe 74% of education providers were confident that their graduates were prepared for work, yet only 38% of youths and 35% of employers agreed.
McKinsey Report Education to Employment: Getting Europe’s Youth into Work (2014)

6. France Céreq’s Génération survey (2010 and 2014) Results published in
Ines Albandea, Jean-François Giret
L'effet des soft-skills sur la rémunération des diplômés
Drawing on a study based on a sample of master’s graduates who responded to Céreq’s Génération 2010 survey and were questioned again in 2014, the authors have tried to construct indicators of soft skills and then to measure the effects those skills have on salaries. It would appear that soft skills explain part of the pay of young master’s graduates from business and engineering schools. They particularly influence the highest salaries, which suggests these soft skills are particularly important for the most highly skilled jobs.
The more you have these skills the more chance you have to find a job with a high salary

7. France
Obtaining a master’s degree or having professional experience tend to have the greatest effects at the lower end of the pay distribution.
The authors conclude, in their article entitled L’effet des soft-skills sur la rémunération des diplômés/The effect of soft skills on graduate pay, that it is as if there are two types of labour market for graduates. The first provides access to higher-skill, better paid jobs but requires various cognitive and non-cognitive skills and networks in addition to a degree, whereas the second offers less well paid jobs but ones in which the objective components of human capital, such as degree and experience, are much more protective.
These are not enough, soft skills are more important than these

8. STUDENTS’ AWARENESS
During eLene4work Focus Groups (Output 2), students identified 5 main categories of soft skills that they believe they should develop before entering the labour market: Social skills; “Self- skills”; Personal skills; Work skills; Digital skills.

10. Dublin descriptors 15 soft and digital soft skills
Knowledge and understanding
Applying knowledge and understanding
Making judgements
Communication
Lifelong learning skills
Analytical skills
Adaptability and flexibility
Creativity and innovation
Problem solving
Digital problem solving
Information and data processing
Digital content creation
Self-evaluation
Conflict management
Teamwork
Leadership
Negotiation
Communication
Digital communication
Learning to learn

18. How to connect 4 digital soft skills Digital communication
Digital content creation
Digital problem solving
Information and data processing
4Cs
Communication
Creativity
Critical thinking
Collaboration

19. Thank You!