The contribution is focused on the analysis between education and unemployment in the Slovak Republic. There is a reciprocal proportion between education and unemployment: the lower education, the higher unemployment. It is especially typical of long-term unemployment which is highest at the lowest level of basic education. In Slovakia, young people’s unemployment rate in the age range of 15–24 is three times higher in comparison with the OECD countries. The situation necessitates a quick solution. The education level of people and a constant rise of qualifications belong to basic assumptions needed for a decrease of unemployment, an increase in labour market flexibility, and a development of national economy.

Youth is one of the riskiest groups at the labour market. Social pedagogy offers historical experience, a theoretical background as well as professional approach to solving youth unemployment. There is a wide range of social and pedagogical interventions into this multidisciplinary problem including preventive counseling, coordination of the school system and the labour market, and criticism and innovation of social changes that would bring help to unemployed youth.

The text addresses the key competencies of the future relevant to the labour market from the perspective of students of the humanities and social sciences. It is based on the research carried out in three universities: in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (a total of 603 students were surveyed) in 2022 as part of the Erasmus+ project grant KA220-HED. Research results indicate that students perceive critical thinking, problem-solving, and interpersonal communication skills as the most important for future work, given that creativity is ranked in the middle of the three universities by students. Students ranked low emotion management, time management skills and digital competencies in the labor market. In terms of gender in the 4Cs, there are differences – for men, critical thinking is more important than for women, while communication and cooperation are more important for women. There are no differences in assessing the importance of creativity – this reflects the stereotypical image of differences between occupations perceived as more male and female.

Profound transformations of civilization create new needs for the generating, processing, storing and transmitting of knowledge. New objectives arise due to these needs in various areas of social life. One of the important aspects of the undergoing transformations is the increasing significance of non-institutional processes of education, including the process of self-education, which still does not have the right position in the teaching theory and practice. There is a need to analyse the process from different perspectives, diverse contexts and on the grounds of various theories. The present article emphasizes the concept of the analysis of student self-education from the perspective of the subject undertaking the process in the context of the effects of university and the changes of reality. The presentation of the proposed analysis is of a teaching character based on cognitive theories of the development of personality.