More competent and more equal: higher education as a supporter of soft skills development

Nowadays, job market hunt for graduates who, besides traditional hard skills, have conceptual, instrumental and interpersonal skills that allow them to work in complex and multicultural environments. The European higher education system has sought to tackle the challenge by creating a set of public policies emphasizing the critical weight of soft skills. Thus, soft skills training is critically influenced not only by socioeconomic context, but also by students’ psychological development, and by educational strategies pursued by HEIs. Therefore, higher education institutions can benefit from the use of diagnostic tools to assess soft skills. This assessment could be particularly relevant if implemented before access (analyzing candidates profiles and their specific educational needs) and after concluding graduation (exploring the impact of higher education contribution on skills development). Using an assessment tool for evaluating eight soft skills, this study presents exploratory data on the competency profiles of two distinct groups of students (applicants to higher education and last year students), revealing the impact of higher education in soft skills development. In addition to a clear improvement in students' soft skills, the preliminary results point out to a homogenization effect on student profiles. Comparing the results of the different two groups, results also reveal a decrease in the dispersion between them. In sum, our study shows that higher education has a more effective impact in the development of conceptual skills than in relational ones.