What makes the difference in students' soft skills development: an analysis of LPA* results

Today, employers are looking for graduates who have a more diverse set of skills, including conceptual, instrumental and interpersonal skills that allow them to work in complex and multicultural environments. However, and in addition to the efforts that HEI make in the promotion of these skills, this development is also influenced by sociodemographic factors and the psychological development of the students. In this context, HEI can seek to know the factors that influence the development of soft skills, aiming to adapt their educational strategies to the needs and contexts of the students. The present study focuses a skills assessment tool, Laureate Professional Assessment (LPA), developed by Laureate International Universities for application in the 80 Higher Education Institutions worldwide. This tool evaluates the competency profiles of students in eight soft skills: adapting to change, working well with others, analyzing and solving problems, global mindset, generating ideas and innovating, learning and self-development, achieving objectives and leading others. Our research aim is to identify and explore what personal and sociodemographic dimensions could explain the gap between different competency profiles. To do so, we used that instrument for assessing eight soft skills in a sample of 500 last year students in a bachelor degree at Universidade Europeia in Portugal in 2017. Some socio-demographic data (gender and age) provided by the students, their academic grade and program choice (night shift students and day shift students) are used as test-variables. In general, our results show that gender, academic grade and program choice are variables associated to all soft skills development. In turn, age is correlated only in "leading others" skills.