Transversal Competences: Their Importance and Learning Processes by Higher Education Students

Abstract

At a time when the labour market is blocked and simultaneously rapidly changing, with the emergence of new professional and scientific areas, the higher education mission becomes less indisputable and more indeterminate and challenging. This uncertainty was the leitmotiv for this essay, which aims to discuss the importance of attaining transversal competences in higher education. To achieve this goal, a bibliographical research was carried out on the attention that is currently given by higher education institutions to this topic, how they respond to the need for increasingly more transversal training and how they develop a curriculum that meets these requirements. Thus, in methodological terms, a thorough research on the literature addressing the topic of transversal competences was carried out; subsequently, a document search was conducted and a qualitative review and analysis of the documents collected was performed to justify our stance. Our analysis allowed concluding that the context of indeterminacy regarding the future has variations, considering the geographical and political situation, the social context and the activity sector. Furthermore, attitudes, expectations and predispositions are also critical elements for the success of this process of transversal competences’ attainment. This latter factor is central in this process, as there is often a gap between students’ expectations regarding the competences they expect to attain in higher education and the proposals that frame their training at the micro, meso and macrosocial levels and which take the need to attain transversal competences in higher education for granted.

Teaching for a Better World. Sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals in the Construction of a Change-Maker University

“…By competence, we mean the integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes to a particular situation [51,52]. Learning outcomes at different stages of education refer to competences [16,57,58]. In a world of profound change, no one really knows what the skills required are going to be in the future [59].…”

“…In this sense, university education traditionally focused on the development of professional skills is undergoing a deep crisis. In this context, transversal skills play an important role [58,59]. In previous works [20,57,60,61], we have reflected on the importance of developing specific competences (directly related to the profession) and transversal competences, those that are related to the profession are also related to the development of critical citizenship, in the university environment.…”

Students’ Perspective on Quality Assurance in Higher Education in the Context of Sustainability: A PLS-SEM Approach

“…At the level of the higher education system, the organization of the educational process needs to be continuously developed [45] to match the competencies they form in students and those that labor market organizations require. Thus, universities are being challenged to continually assess the labor market and the competencies required by employers [45] to redefine the content of their disciplines in order to adapt their educational offerings to the needs of the labor market [8] and to develop their own skills and competencies, required in various professional fields, in order to impart these to students. In this context, universities need to create particular learning settings, in which students can develop and improve their competencies to understand the complexity and long-term effect of them for present-day actions and, thus, contribute to a sustainable future [19].…”

“…At the moment, as Sá and Serpa [8] also maintain that the labor market is blocked and is rapidly changing due to the occurrence of new professional and scientific fields, and implicitly, new jobs make the mission of higher education more and more challenging and less indisputable. The higher education system is in a moment of transition, and universities need to discover new ways of attracting students and, moreover, preparing them for the current job market and ensuring the sustainable development of society [9].…”

“…The current role of the higher education system to ensure full education involves conveying not only a series of technical skills, but also other competencies, such as [18]: communication skills, teamwork skills, project and time management skills, and emotional coordination capacities. In addition, universities need to adapt their educational offering to the needs of the labor market and equip students with transferable skills [8], which will enable them to apply the acquired knowledge in different professional fields.…”