The DOI matches its Crossref record; 30 of the 30 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Soft skills to enhance graduate employability: comparing students and employers’ perceptions
Abstract
The aim of this article is to show the increased relevance of soft skills in a continuously changing environment. A research was carried out to examine and compare students’ and employers’ perceptions regarding the importance of soft skills in different European countries. Results show that 86% of respondents indicate an increased emphasis on soft skills over the last 5–10 years and that companies consider soft skills more important than students/graduates. Furthermore, major differences have also been identified in the ranking of the 20 soft skills listed in this paper, indicating different levels of priorities. This paper suggests that companies and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to work together not only to increase students’ awareness of the importance of soft skills but also to guide them in taking individual responsibility to acquire and develop these essential skills in order to continuously adapt to the changing labour market and improve their employability.
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Cites
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Employability: A psycho-social construct, its dimensions, and applications
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Executive Perceptions of the Top 10 Soft Skills Needed in Today’s Workplace
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Graduate Employability, ‘Soft Skills’ Versus ‘Hard’ Business Knowledge: A European Study
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Rethinking graduate employability: the role of capital, individual attributes and context
Clarke, M. (2018) · Studies in Higher Education · doi:10.1080/03075079.2017.1294152 · Cited by 882
Design Thinking and How It Will Change Management Education: An Interview and Discussion
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Cited by
Abdelwahab, H. R., Rauf, A., & Chen, D. (2023) · Industry and Higher Education · doi:10.1177/09504222221087614 · Cited by 82
Hard and soft skill needs: Higher education and the Fintech sector
Doherty, O., & Stephens, S. (2023) · Journal of Education and Work · doi:10.1080/13639080.2023.2174954 · Cited by 39
Colson, N., Shuker, M.-A., & Maddock, L. (2022) · Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education · doi:10.1080/02602938.2021.2011133 · Cited by 12
From Topic to Thesis: Critical Engagement with Generative AI in Thesis Preparation
Virkki, O. T., Naeem, U., & Styve, A. (2026) · 2026 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) · doi:10.1109/educon67543.2026.11574181
Metadata
- Authors
- Succi, C., & Canovi, M.
- Venue
- Studies in Higher Education
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2019-03-05
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1834-1847
- ISSN
- 0307-5079 (ISSN-L)
- 1470-174X
- OpenAlex
- W2921986321
- Cited by
- 849
- References
- 30
- FWCI
- 155.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
