Job-relevant competences from the perspective of students of humanities and social studies at three European universities. Research findings of the project “Enhancing Quality Teaching of Humanities and Social Sciences in Higher Education for 21+”

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.

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