Enhancing Skills for Employment in the Workplace of the Future 2020 Using the Theory of Connectivity: Shared and Adaptive Personal Learning Environments in a Spanish Context

Abstract

European living environments are well placed as an essential means through which cities become functional, modern, and liveable places, and are the ideal setting for the innovation and implementation of businesses and ideas. In addition, they are a place in which existing gaps in labour market inclusion are easily widened amongst those who, for various reasons, have not received adequate training, such as immigrants (including unaccompanied foreign minors) and young people without qualifications that have several difficulties in the access to higher education. Further, as is noted in the Phoenix report entitled Future Work Skills 2020, our educational system suffers from a lack of training with regards to the employment skills that need to be integrated into current society, as these have a crucial role for achieving success in the workplace. The aim of this study is to analyse the key skills for the inclusion of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors (UFM) in the workplace, developing a scale for the assessment of ten basic skills for the work of the future. These individuals are mostly young people without qualifications trying to make it in the new environments of current Smart Cities. This study employs an empirical and experimental methodology with two comparison groups of UFM adolescents. The UFM population is contextualised by the migratory flow from North Africa to Europe. Multistage sampling was used to select 345 participants. An approximation scale of the level of Future Work Skills was created as a data collection instrument through simulations of Horizon 2020 (EA-HFL-SH2020). Multivariate analysis was performed which revealed significant differences between school variables, work experience and educational level. The results are aligned with the evaluation of skill acquisition level for the working future of UFM and with the proposed training model of work skills that facilitate their inclusion in the world of the European workforce, as a function of the significant differences found. In addition, the emphasis is placed on the interest of identifying this type of skills in this group in order to develop appropriate training programs in higher education for employment success.

Personal Learning Environments that Facilitate Socio-Educational Integration of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors

“…Instead, they must stay in the city of Melilla wandering the streets, hoping for their situation to be resolved and, in some cases leading to an opening for a quick expulsion. This situation directly affects the “day to day” of the youth centre given that many of the minors hang around the centre, leading to thefts and aggression against other minors [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 77 ]. For this reason, it is important to better understand the socio-educational integration strategies administered through the personal learning environments (PLE), of unaccompanied male minors [ 25 ].…”

“…Various studies describe the psychosocial characteristics of minors who survive in the street [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. These concur in highlighting that many suffer emotional problems which often translate to drug and alcohol abuse, and behavioural problems which provoke conflict, even amongst themselves.…”

A University Training Programme for Acquiring Entrepreneurial and Transversal Employability Skills, a Students’ Assessment

“…Other authors [67][68][69][70] research the incorporation of transversal competences applied to the university sector; while other studies analyze the integration between higher education and job skills and the positive effects that it entails [53,54,71]. The Phoenix report of Future Work Skills H2020 [72] proposes the following skills as a basis for achieving success in the workplace: Creating meaning, social intelligence, original and adaptive thought, trans-cultural competence, literacy in new means of communication, transdisciplinary to understand concepts through multiple disciplines, developing a way of thinking in order to attain the desired results, cognitive load management, virtual collaboration as a member of a virtual team, computational thinking for transferring large quantities of data into abstract concepts and to understand data-based reasoning [73]. These skills should be acquired by university students for successful use in a real work context [55].…”

Am I Fit for Tomorrow’s Labor Market? The Effect of Graduates’ Skills Development during Higher Education for the 21st Century’s Labor Market

“…Due to these changes, a sustainable entry to this labor market is crucial, and the interest in the degree of graduates' so-called "work-readiness" has exploded [3]. Among others, by the notion that educational systems suffer from a lack of training with regard to employment skills [4]. According to Lechner, Tomasik, and Silbereisen [5], career prospects and the "education-future labor market fit" have become more uncertain, individual career paths have become less stable [3], and graduates need to be prepared for this new environment.…”