Supporting Employability by a Skills Assessment Innovative Tool—Sustainable Transnational Insights from Employers

Abstract

Employability remains an important subject in the European and international context. This is the first qualitative and quantitative transnational research of the perception of the heterogeneous sample of employers regarding a sustainable and experimental innovative tool for the assessment of competencies to support employability. The aim of this study is an empirical examining of the employers perception from Austria, Romania and Sweden, from five different sectors of activity regarding a sustainable and innovative online tool for continuous assessment of skills to support employability. In the study, a quantitative analysis was carried out using data based on Eurostat indicators for quality of employment and a qualitative analysis using face-to-face interviews. Our results show that even if there are significant statistically differences regarding the quality of employment according to the Eurostat indicators, all these countries have a good, equally and strong perception with an innovative and sustainable tool for continuous assessment of skills to support employability. The research results fill a gap in the existing literature and offer a new and argued point of view regarding the continuous assessment of competences from the employer’s point of view from the three different countries as regarding the social, economic and political aspects.

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

“…In relation to employability competencies, international organizations consider the hard ones, technical and analytical, that allow the worker to perform the mechanical aspects of the job; and the soft ones, or transversal skills, that are defined as intangible personal qualities required to be effective in the work place, these skills cut across jobs and sectors [11][12][13][14]. The World Economic Forum (WEF) points out that those skills such as creativity, originality, initiative, critical thinking, flexibility, complex problem-solving, emotional intelligence, and leadership will likewise retain or increase their value in an international labor market [15].…”

Implementation of Education Model 4.0: Developing Industry 4.0 Skills in Graduates Engineers for Improving Employability Skills

“…Due to of increased unemployment rate for understudies advanced education must include an incentive by creating work-related aptitudes and skills. Additionally, people must create numerous aptitudes, including information securing for long-lasting and life-wide learning and dispositional employability for an unusual future (Gabor, Blaga & Matis, 2019).…”

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

“…In ESDG 4, UNESCO recommends that education for sustainable development should be included in all formal education curricula: primary, secondary and higher education and that the learner should be able to "recognize the importance of their own skills for improving their life, in particular for employment and entrepreneurship" [3]. In relation to employability competencies, international organizations consider the hard ones, technical and analytical, that allow the worker to perform the mechanical aspects of the job; and the soft ones, or transversal skills, that are defined as intangible personal qualities required to be effective in the work place, these skills cut across jobs and sectors [4][5][6][7]. The World Economic Forum (WEF) points out that skills such as creativity, originality, initiative, critical thinking, flexibility, complex problem-solving, emotional intelligence and leadership will likewise retain or increase their value in an international labour market [8].…”

“…In most studies of the international literature, some skills assessment techniques are gathered, such as the standardized competence assessment procedure [53], the CAT (Competency Assessment Tool) [54], the CBT (competencies-based training systems) [55] and the sustainable employability assessment tool [56], among others. The problem is that these tools only address some competencies, or only focus on the analysis of certain types of degree studies [7], not being replicable to others. Some authors also analyze another series of specific competencies that contribute to students entering the labour market successfully facing their first job, from the employer's point of view [57].…”

“…Considering the acquisition of transversal employability competencies incorporated in the curricular subjects there are not many evaluations from the point of view of the students. Generally, undergraduate students use some self-assessment technique to measure competencies [58] such as the self-perceived employability scale (SPE) [59,60], however, there are investigations that emphasize the need for an objective measurement of their level of employability [58].…”