Essence

Latest news

The ESSENCE project is coming to an end with great results

The ESSENCE project is coming to an end, yet this is really the starting point for its future success as we have reached this stage with the full release of all the deliverables prepared: a) One multilanguage OER platform, fully open with no login required to train students and trainers on the most needed soft skills on the labour market. The platform and its contents are available in 7 languages, with the possibility of using training material both online and offline. Moreover, training can be listened to in audio format to boost accessibility to people with a visual impairment. At the end of each training module, the user has the opportunity to test their knowledge and a customizable certificate is released if the skill acquisition has been ratified. b) One comprehensive research report identifying soft skills linked to employability, highlighting those that are most desirable among employers. c) A toolkit with 7 training modules, each providing access to an introductory video, a theoretical overview, slides in pptx, a test with 10 questions, 3 best practices, 3 case studies and an interactive decision game, all available in 7 languages d) Detailed guidelines for future usage and sustainability of project results. All these materials have been developed and peer-reviewed by experts in the academia and business and will be available to the public for at least 3 years after the end of the project. To recap, Essence project results are: Free OER platform, available online in 7 languages Open 24/7 Tailor made Free: all courses are free Open and respecting users’ privacy: registration is not required Anonymous use: statistics are based on sessions linked to unique codes related to the contents viewed. Fast: short videos along with training modules and tools quick to read Easy: training modules are organized by concepts to facilitate users’ understanding and better knowledge acquisition. Complete availability: available online 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, and offline in PDF in 7 languages: Accessible: training contents have audio format in every language Diverse: it offers different multimedia solutions: training courses, video tutorials, summaries, most important key facts for each course, student guidelines. Professional: contents have been developed by experts in each training area. For further information on ESSENCE: Website: http://projectessence.eu/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectessence.eu/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBkiHG_WcmI0x7lBCknLwPA

More news

Transnational Project Meeting and International Science Seminar in Rzeszow

In October 2022, the ESSENCE partners met in Rzeszow, Poland, for their 4th transnational project meeting (TPM), organized and hosted by the ESSENCE Project Coordinator, the University of Information Technology and Management (UITM) in Rzeszow. All partners contributed to the event by sharing their lessons learnt in building the ESSENCE e-learning platform. Partners discussed the challenges they had faced and the positive outcomes they had managed to achieve. Each partner delivered a presentation on their content development method. The meeting further focused on the latest changes in the ESSENCE e-learning platform functionality. There was an exchange of ideas on providing further training opportunities so that all partners may best use the platform functionality, especially its ‘back office’. There was a discussion on new ways of developing student-driven methodology to provide trainees with the best learning experience. More ideas were shared on how to secure the project’s sustainability. The project’s latest phase involves further dissemination of the project deliverables, including the organization of the multiplier events (MPEs), which each partner hosts to reach out to stakeholders and target groups. The Department of Entrepreneurship at UITM together with the Department of Economics and Business Economics, University of Dubrovnik, Croatia, also organized the International Science Seminar on Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, with all partners taking part, sharing their research on good practices of entrepreneurship initiatives for promoting innovation. For example, the ESSENCE team at UITM in Rzeszow delivered a presentation on The Phenomenon of Student Employability and the Spanish Internet Web team discussed Public and Private Policies in Employability: Trends and Dynamics. The Spanish Case. IDP European Consultants, Italy, shared their ideas on a non-conventional approach to employability and graduate entrepreneurship support in Italy, while the team from IHF Institut de Haute Formation aux Politiques Communautaires, Belgium, discussed new paths for young people’s professional development and entrepreneurship. The team from University of Dubrovnik, Croatia, shared their research on innovation failure and investment in training in emerging innovation systems. The team from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia, talked about their hands-on approach to soft skills development for future entrepreneurs and practitioners and the University of Economics – Varna team gave a talk on Bulgaria’s Higher Education: Soft Skills Development, Graduate Employability, Student Entrepreneurship, and Collaboration with the Corporate and Public Sectors. Further discussion ensued as each presentation gave rise to even more questions. As the project is drawing to an end, all partners expressed their satisfaction with the project deliverables and their collaboration, emphasizing their commitment to pursue more joint research and project opportunities.

ESSENCE project on the finish line: going public for larger impact.

ESSENCE project from the very beginning has been a unique attempt to develop a tailored platform and toolkit for development of the soft skills to boost the employability. Now the project is entering the finish sprint when all the activities have to finalized to ensure the expected impact from the project. All the material that was planned is developed and publicly available in all 7 project languages. In addition to the availability the project team made an effort to make the teaching material attractive and user friendly. The course material and tools have been complemented with appealing animations that are now placed on the project webpage as well as available on Youtube. In addition to the attractive and appealing components of the project also serious content has been developed. This includes the validation report (guidelines for uptake and implementation) as well as soft skills development manifesto. Both documents are developed to represent lessons learned in terms of content as well as experiences during the development of the different components of the project. Work on this material has been conducted on a cross country level thus maximizing the appropriateness for each and every country participating in the project. Explicit and implicit learning lessons from the project team has been taken into account to provide maximized feasibility for various contexts that can be present in EU member countries. Considering the importance and actuality of the project it is crucial to ensure both short term and log term impact. The short-term impact to large extent is already operational through the toolkit and other material. In order to ensure a broader spread of the achieved results all partners are preparing special multiplier events to take place during the October 2022. Those events are aimed to promote the outcomes from the project to various groups of stakeholders: companies, educational institutions, students and other target groups etc. In addition, it will be important to collect the feedback about different components of the project. The feedback part can be considered as an important precondition for ensuring the long-term impact. It is expected that ESSENCE project will have a number of spinoffs that will take soft skills development to the new levels. The collected feedback will be used to further tailor the various tools increase their usability and increase the efficiency of learning. Even if any type of spin-off is welcome and beneficial the leading role here should be taken by the existing partnership for ESSENCE project. The good news here is that there are already some ideas and plans how the idea can be developed. So stay tuned and connected with ESSENCE for follow up.

Sustainability and Multiplier Effect of the ESSENCE project: A commitment to new training opportunities for soft skills’ development

The main objective of ESSENCE’s project is to improve employability opportunities for HE students leveraging on the development (nurturing) of their soft skills. ESSSENCE is a transnational and cross-cultural project co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. It includes seven organisations from seven different EU countries representing the many different interests included by the scale and scope of the project: third sector and civil society, private sector and employment, academia and research. One of the most important priorities of any Erasmus+ co-financed project is assuring for the sustainability and long-term effect of the given initiatives, meaning: its capacity to generate impacts and positive outcomes even after its formal conclusion. There are many ways is this objective is achievable. First and foremost, by communicating and mainstreaming to the general public, as well as specific targets of the project, the tangible results and deliverables produced by the project. But sterile communication means nothing if it is not followed-up by concrete means that help the target of these dissemination activities to leverage on partners’ experience – gained by them throughout implementation – and implement their own local, national and/or international initiatives that make use of ESSENCE’s resources or came up with brand new actions that stem from the one of reference. In order to ease this transfer of knowledge, expertise and know how beyond the organisations (and related staff) formally participating in the partnership, while designing the project partners envisioned a whole work package structured to provide clear, narrowly-focused and concrete guidelines on how to transfer and/or replicate ESSENCE’s results in different domain of practice. This whole work package includes two formal deliverables: i.e., guiding documents aimed at practitioners of HR disciplines and university to capitalise on partners’ efforts and embed in their strategic planning, as well as daily training activities, the results from the project in the sense of: takeaways, lessons learnt and recommendations for the provision of new, experience-based and innovative capacity building opportunities. ESSENCE’s guidelines for uptake. On the basis of results and impacts achieved so far, each partner will compile a formal document: lessons learned and key takeaways from all partners emerging from the piloting phase, and overall STKHs’ engagement practices (i.e., a wealth of knowledge on which other groups on interest can benefit from) guidelines for the adoption of the training resources, materials and tools and its transferability in other domains of practice This is not a mere Validation Report, the document is conceived to provide: detailed instructions on operational and managerial features, including the delivery mechanisms and other operational aspects of the training further guidance to other VET/HE institutions on the delivery means, structure of the workshops, recommendations on the blended learning capabilities and recommendations for the OER eLearning modalities best practices and recommendations for the valorisation of EU funding means for education and training opportunities ESSENCE’s Soft Skills Manifesto. This document collects the lessons learned and praxis occurred at implementation of the project, translating the results and impacts of IO1, 2 and 3 into a policy document that puts forward evidence for HEI in the domain of education, students’ empowerment for transition into the labour market, strengthening of training offer following markets and employers’ demand. Both documents represent the “institutional and operational memory” of the project, consolidating results, findings and strategic features experimented at implementation that are poised to inform new practices at formal and informal level while putting out innovative ideas and inputs to relevant STKHs orbiting around the ecosystems of VET, HEI and employability. Both documents will be available in free version for consultation in October 2022 via the official Open Education resource Platform of the project: https://projectessence.eu/index.php

The ESSENCE training curricula on soft skills for employability

The main objective of ESSENCE’s project is to improve employability opportunities for HE students leveraging on the development (nurturing) of their soft skills. ESSSENCE is a transnational and cross-cultural project co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. It includes seven organisations from seven different EU countries representing the many different interests’ included by the scale and scope of the project: third sector and civil society, private sector and employment, academia and research. Since the official launch of the project, two of the key deliverables assured by partners’ efforts have been represented by: The transnational and cross-sectorial assessment of soft skills for employability – formal deliverable of the second intellectual output of the project “Mapping soft skills with employability – The most desirable soft skills among job applicants”, which identifies the current state of play of soft skills-centred development programmes for young people at formal, informal and non-formal level (available at: https://projectessence.eu/mapping.php), the most sought after soft skills by the labour market for fresh graduates’ employment, gaps and lags in the provision of target-centred capacity building programmes [based on the evidences emerging from the above] training curricula which include seven modules, one per each identified skill, further elaborated in sub-didactic units – so as to better facilitate targets’ learning process and the delivery of the material for coaches, professors and teachers. Every participating organisation has been involved in the process of development of training modules: roles, responsibilities and workload have been shared based on the specific know-how, expertise, background and experience detained by involved staff members. All training material has been developed in ENG – the common working language of the partnership – and later translated in all national languages represented by the countries participating in the project. This is to ease the dissemination and valorisation of the training resources even among non-proficient English speakers. Each training module is also integrated with a series of related case studies, best practices and self-assessment quizzes. This is to assure a balanced provision of technical / theoretical references and operative / practical-centred insights and inputs to empower learners on that given skill. During the last development phase, the whole ESSENCE training curricula has been deployed in pilot version to 150 targets’ representatives (i.e., university students, fresh graduates, as well as employers and professionals of HR) for evaluation, assessment and monitoring of partners’ satisfaction with the content, impacts and takeaways of the training. The whole piloting process has been coordinated by the lead institution of the partnership (University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow), their responsibility was to provide for harmony and common understanding upon each activity leading to the implementation of this specific project task. The validation of the training curricula has been anticipated by the sharing among all partners of a detailed internal plan (i.e., Test and Validation Plan) designed to provide for guidance and support references for all partners. All in all, based on the internal reporting shared by partners after completion of their piloting sessions, all institutions managed to exceed the expectation of targets, which recognised the impact that an ESSENCE-like initiatives can generate for their personal (and professional) development, and more in general, in the case of professionals, at ecosystem level for the benefits of EU labour market. The results coming out from the Validation phase will nurture a cluster of takeaways, recommendations and lessons learnt that partners will compile in another formal deliverable of this project – the Guidelines for exploitation – conceived and designed to sustain the replicability of the project, or similar initiative inspired by its scale and scope, in related fields of education and training. To know more about the project, please visit: https://projectessence.eu/index.php

ESSENCE (Enhance Soft Skills to Nurture Competitiveness and Employability) Consortium Organised 3rd Transnational Project Meeting

In May 2022, the ESSENCE consortium organised the third transnational project meeting. The meeting, originally planned to take place in Riga (Latvia), was conducted in online mode based on an agenda developed jointly by all partners. The ESSENCE project consortium includes seven partners from seven different countries (Bulgaria, Belgium, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Poland and Spain). At the meeting, the partners analysed the status of the project implementation. The main objective of the meeting was to present the toolkit and training content, including a detailed analysis of each partner. The partners also focused on discussing the testing and validation (T&V) process of the project results and related activities, as the T&V activities will provide valuable insight from the users' perspective. Feedback from students, academics, and institutions representing different sectors of the business community will provide valuable information on the quality of materials produced during project implementation. In the coming months, the ESSENCE consortium will develop a soft skills manifesto for universities. All resources will be uploaded to the project platform and will remain available after the end of the project implementation. Information about the project, as well as the ESSENCE innovative Open Educational Platform containing tailored educational solutions can be found at ESSENCE website and on social media: Sitio web: https://projectessence.eu Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Essence-107956864669490/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBkiHG_WcmI0x7lBCknLwPA

ESSENCE educational materials. Test & Validation

The international ESSENCE consortium has started the testing and validation phase of the set of innovative training materials developed by the project. The collected information is crucial for the refinement of the prepared materials. Taking into account the suggestions from their recipients in this process will allow to build full compatibility of the characteristics of the training materials included in the project with the expectations expressed by the users towards them. The consortium already has the first validation results provided by the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow, Internet Web Solutions, The Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga) and the University of Dubrovnik. The opinions collected are extremely valuable. High marks collected by educational materials as well as their overall positive reception by representatives of students, academia as well as institutions representing various spheres of economic life, confirm the project team's conviction that not only the subject of the project is right, but also the high quality of the materials created during its implementation. We encourage you to follow the current information about the ESSENCE project via the innovative Open Educational Platform containing tailored educational solutions (https://projectessence.eu/index_pl.php?lang=PL), our Facebook account (https://www.facebook.com/projectessence.eu/), as well as the ESSENCE channel on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBkiHG_WcmI0x7lBCknLwPA). If you are interested in the ESSENCE project, please contact us and join the group of our associates (https://projectessence.eu/associates_pl.php?lang=PL). We are convinced that our ESSENCE Open Educational Platform is an ideal place for the exchange of information, and the established cooperation will have a chance to result in further interesting projects in the future.

Enhance Soft Skills to Nurture Competitiveness and Employability

The ESSENCE project, reaches one of the main results of the implementation. All the training material developed by Partners during this last period, has been uploaded on the Project OER platform, and open in all languages to the public. Training contents are completely free of charge and are already available in the seven languages of the ESSENCE project (English, Polish, Croatian, Italian, Latvian, Bulgarian, and Spanish), on the following link https://projectessence.eu/toolkits.php. The ESSENCE project is a specific response to the needs of the labour market, which are in line with the interests of university students, HR specialists and employers. The ESSENCE training consists of 7 Modules, focus on the most desirable soft skills for employability within the EU countries, identified on the Intellectual Output 2: Coordinating with Others, Creativity, Emotional Intelligence, Judgment and Decision Making, Complex Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, and Cognitive Flexibility. Each of the training modules includes Case studies, Best practices of interest of the topic, Self-assessment tests, and a Decision Game available to the user to check their knowledge about the ESSENCE training courses, in an innovative and dynamic way. The training modules are structured in different didactic units, and sections, and the Platform ensure a user-friendly and an easy an intuitive navigation and experience for the user. Each module includes also, Keywords, Description, and Learning Objectives. The ESSENCE Trainings are also available for download in PDF and PPT format, and includes a list of references, and an Audio Play option to ensure the accessibility to all users. ESSENCE is a Project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission involving eight Partners from seven countries (Poland, Croatia, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Bulgaria, and Spain), representing different backgrounds. The ESSENCE project intends to improve employability opportunities for HE students by stimulating soft skills development. Project objective is to maximize their engagement in the labour market through offering professional development paths that go beyond formal HE trainings. In order to meet the expectations of entrepreneurs and recruiters connected with the most desirable soft skills, the courses will be based on the demand-driven employers’ perspective. For further information on ESSENCE: Website: http://projectessence.eu/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectessence.eu/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBkiHG_WcmI0x7lBCknLwPA

ESSENCE Material on Soft Skills Development Available in Multiple Languages

The ESSENCE international team is very happy to announce the development of seven modules in soft skills training in English, Bulgarian, Croatian, Italian, Latvian, Spanish, and Polish, available soon in the free access project platform: http://projectessence.eu The ESSENCE teams have designed and developed teaching units, activities, tasks, best practices, case studies, and decision-making games with a focus on: • Cognitive Flexibility. • Complex Problem Solving. • Coordinating with Others. • Creativity. • Critical Thinking for Professional Development. • Emotional Intelligence for Employability. • Judgment and Decision Making. Within the next few months these modules will be further tested with the project target groups: university students and graduates, academic staff and admin officers, business trainers / mentors, and entrepreneurs. As a result of testing, the ESSENCE teams intend to finetune the material to improve interactivity, enhance satisfaction, and add value. The ESSENCE project deliverables are aimed at the successful inclusion of graduates in the dynamic global labour market that increasingly requires excellent soft skills. The modules may further be used to train employees in business organisations for enhanced interpersonal communication and better performance. The ultimate ESSENCE project goal is that university students, graduates, trainees and employees develop soft skills that will help them gain a competitive edge in the globalised labour market.

Essentially good news for Christmas and New Year:

The ESSENCE project intends to improve employability opportunities for HE students by stimulating soft skills development. In order to achieve this goal all, the partners have been working intensively to finalize the contents of the educational modules to make them available online in 2022. The modules will cover the topics that are considered as essential for soft skill development namely: complex problem solving, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, creativity, cognitive flexibility, decision making and coordination skills. All those skills are considered as crucial for employability in 2022 and beyond. To maximize the learning effect from all the modules they are developed focusing on practical examples and case studies. In each of 7 partner countries at lest 3 best practices were identified. In addition at least 3 case studies were prepared. Those practical tools will be integrated with more traditional teaching tools like power point presentation for each module. To make the learning experience more comfortable for students a decision game has been developed and will be available in 2022. All modules are developed in co-operation between partners from 7 countries. This ensures more added value of the ESSENCE project since it also includes transnational and cross cultural perspective. All the teaching material including game, case studies etc., will be translated in 7 languages to ensure that students and other target groups in each partner country can access and use the teaching material easily. To conclude it can be stated that all the possible barriers for use of the teaching material has been removed and next year it will be available for everyone who would like to improve the employability via development of the soft skills. ESSENCE study material will be available in seven languages (English, Polish, Croatian, Italian, Latvian, Bulgarian and Spanish). THE TARGET GROUP: the material is prepared primarily for students from universities and other HEI. It will be useful and beneficial for all types of study areas e.g. natural since, IT, technology and engineering, social since etc. However, the material is developed in a way that it can also be used by the representative of other target groups who would like to develop and improve soft skills. SSE Riga in the module development was actively utilizing the knowledge and skills possessed by SSE Riga faculty. The academic knowledge was integrated with the applied one to maximize the usability of the teaching material. For a number of years SSE Riga pays a special attention to the development of various skills including the soft ones. This includes regular and elective course as well as coaching and academic advising. All this capital was integrated in the ESSENCE project teaching material to benefit the future employees. As Alber Einstein said: “Any fool can know. The point is to understand” and the ESSENCE project tools will ensure that and take each participant to the knew levels of understanding in the New Year 2020. THE PARTNERSHIP: ESSENCE is managed by eight Partners from seven countries, Poland, Croatia, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Bulgaria, and Spain, representing different backgrounds, and is co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. For further information on ESSENCE and other SSE Riga initiatives: http://projectessence.eu/ https://www.facebook.com/Essence-107956864669490/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBkiHG_WcmI0x7lBCknLwPA https://www.sseriga.edu/

Soft skills for better employability and competitiveness in the labour market.

The ESSENCE project’s objective is to improve employability opportunities for students by developing their soft skills. This will lead to better engagement in the labour market as students will be offered professional development paths through soft and “intangible” skills training. ESSENCE develops and offers a flexible module-based learning process: users can access the modules “on-demand” and “on a need basis” to enhance their soft skills and professional self-empowerment. Back in 2016, analysts from the World Economic Forum predicted a major change by 2020 in the “top 10 skills” for employability, recruitment, career development and business competitiveness. According to their report, the opportunity for fresh graduates and university students to compete in the job market would depend increasingly on their soft skills rather than their technical competences. WEF findings have been confirmed by numerous international academic resources that highlight the relevance of soft skills for employability in the new decade. Therefore, ESSENCE will offer students opportunities for soft skills development (such as taking initiative, critical thinking, creativity and people management) to strengthen their employability competitiveness in the labour market. The project’s innovative methodology that will lead partners to the creation of several strategic results: 1. Multilingual online interactive platform (OER Platform) 2. Transnational report highlighting the “most wanted” soft skills for employability in the EU labour market (desk research + survey conducted among 100 employers) 3. Online business glossary to be used as a map of concepts as well as a reference tool to help students navigate across a range of soft skills 4. Custom-made training courses in soft skills for better employability 5. Visibility events in the participating countries and international awareness of the project Moreover, partners believe that project results will be disseminated, mainstreamed and made visible to over 4 million contacts – an estimated number of users engaged via offline and offline communication. The transnational and cross-sectorial assessment of soft skills for employability is available now online – the project’s second intellectual output deliverable: “Mapping soft skills with employability – the most desirable soft skills among job applicants”. The executive summary includes three sections: Part 1. Tools & Good Practices – Research has shown that, at the recruitment stage, the assessment of whether the candidate has appropriate soft skills is based on observing the person during the interview. There is no evidence that companies carry out any special competence tests that show what competences (and at what level) a candidate has, although the examples presented later in the report show interesting solutions in this area, but in the context of employees. In the case of employees of a given organization, the most common form of evaluation is the regular observation by the supervisor of the employee’s behavior during the performance of duties, as well as the employee’s self-assessment in the hope that they will correctly recognize the areas in which they show gaps (in terms of soft skills and even technical skills). In this aspect, several solutions are also worth mentioning, suggesting a departure from traditional forms of assessment or competence development. Part 2. Country Report: National Approaches on Soft Skills and Employability – national public entities declare support in the area of preparing strategies and developing soft skills among youth people but these efforts are more related to the improvement of qualifications and technical skills, with the generic expression most commonly used being “competences”. There is no specific information on soft skills development in higher education, and therefore, any theoretical analysis and practical development about the employability of the group in question. The actions of the universities appear to be more specific and will yield more benefits in the long term. Collaboration remains the first step in improving the educational ecosystem. The public and private sectors and HEIs need to align objectives in order to enhance the effectiveness of policies and the impact of investments. It is essential to develop a shared agenda capable of aligning objectives and strategies to develop skills in young people. Part 3. Primary Research on Soft Skills Mapping. The mapping of soft skills in terms of employability was carried out with the full involvement of the project consortium. The conducted research aimed at mapping soft skills and their relationship with employability has produced a lot of valuable information. Diversified in terms of industry and sector, and at the same time an international research sample, the obtained results are of a cross-sectional character and allow for interesting conclusions on the role of soft skills in the contemporary labor market. Users can access the full report and the executive summary, which outlines main results and findings form the primary and secondary assessment (available in multiple languages: EN, PL, HR, IT, LV, BG, ES).

What soft skills do students need to enhance their employability? The ESSENCE project supports students’ competence building and professional development

The main objective of the ESSENCE project is to improve students’ employability opportunities by developing their soft skills. ESSSENCE is a transnational and cross-cultural project co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. The project involves seven organisations from seven different EU countries that prioritise the project’s goals: NGOs and civil society organisations, private companies, academic institutions and research centres. The project was initiated following a 2016 World Economic Forum report predicting how labour martets were bound to change from 2015 to 2020. Evidence indicated that the global labour market would focus more on “soft” skills rather than “technical” skills in young talent recruitment. The WEF report findings were further confirmed by recent multidimensional research conducted by the ESSENCE project partners throughout 2021 and consolidated in a report (available at: http://projectessence.eu/mapping.php). Partners focused their research efforts on literature sources and testimonials from target groups to extrapolate key conclusions, recommendations and case studies, highlighting the impact of soft skills on recruitment and job-seeking opportunities for university students and fresh graduates. Based on their findings in reference to the most important soft skills for employability, partners are working on curricula that can help target groups and students in developing new soft competences and gaining a competitive edge in the labour market. The curricula include seven modules, one per each identified skill, further developed in units to better facilitate the learning process for both target groups and educators. Every organisation is responsible for the development of one training module: roles, responsibilities and workload have been shared based on the specific know-how and expertise of every module creator. All training material will be developed in English and – post cross-review among partners – will be translated into the languages of the ESSENCE partners. At a later stage, the curricula will be piloted and validated with 150 representatives of the target groups for evaluation and fine-tuning to ensure better consistency and coherence with the underlying needs and gaps identified at the beginning of this project. ESSENCE results and tangible deliverables – including training material – are available in the project’s Operational Educational Resource (OER) Platform. This platform is also the project’s main channel to communicate its deliverables and tangible results.

Soft Skills for employability and competitiveness in the labor market . A transnational and cross-sectorial assessment developed by the ESSENCE Project

ESSENCE’s objective is to Improve employability opportunities for HE students leveraging on soft skills development. The objective is to maximize their engagement in the labour market offering professional development paths through training and education on soft and “intangible” skills. ESSENCE develops and deploys a flexible and permeable learning pathway: users can access and exploit the training “on-demand” and “on a need basis” to enhance their soft skills literacy and professional self-empowerment. Back in 2016, analysts from the World Economic Forum foreseen a major switch in what would have been by 2020 the “top 10 skills” for employability, recruitment, career development and business competitiveness. According to the report, the opportunity for fresh graduates and HE students to compete on the job market would depend increasingly on soft and relational skills, rather than mere technical competences… WEF’s findings are corroborated by numerous international and academic resources that pinpoint with great emphasis the relevance of soft skills for employability in the new incoming decade. On the basis of that, in the following two years ESSENCE will sustain the development among HE students of intangible and soft skills (such as sense of initiative, critical thinking, creativity and people management) to better strengthen their employability competitiveness in the labour market its innovative methodology relies on demand-drive and bottom up approaches that will lead partners in the creation of several strategic results: 1. Online interactive platform (OER Platform) in Multilanguage version: available here 2. Transnational report highlighting the “most wanted” soft skills for employability in the EU labour market (desk research + survey conducted among 100 employers) 3. Online business glossary to be used as a concepts-map as well as a reference to orientate students across the universe of soft skills 4. Custom-made training courses related to self-empowerment soft skills for employability 5. Visibility Events in the participating countries and international awareness of the project Moreover, Partners foresee that project results will be disseminated, mainstreamed and made visible to an overall audience of more than 4 Million contacts – as an estimated sum from the engagement of the public via offline and offline communication. Online is available the transnational and cross-sectorial assessment of soft skills for employability – formal deliverable of the second intellectual output of the project “Mapping soft skills with employability – The most desirable soft skills among job applicants”. The executive summary includes three sections: Part no 1. Tools & Good Practices – Research has shown that, at the recruitment stage, the assessment of whether the candidate has appropriate soft skills (or not) is based on observing the person during the interview. There is no evidence that companies carry out (or are exceptions) special competence tests that show what competences (and at what level) a given candidate is characterized by, although the examples presented later in the report show interesting solutions in this area, but in the context of employees. In the case of employees of a given organization, the most common form of evaluation is the regular observation of the employee’s behavior during the performance of duties by the immediate supervisor, as well as the employee’s self-assessment in the hope that he will correctly recognize the areas in which he shows gaps (in terms of soft skills and even technical skills). In this aspect, several solutions are also worth mentioning, suggesting a departure from traditional forms of assessment or competence development. Part no 2. Country Report: National Approaches on Soft Skills and Employability – country public entities declare support in the area of preparing strategies and developing soft skills among youth people but these efforts are more related to the improvement of qualifications, formal aspects and technical skills, with the generic expression most commonly used being “competences”, and revealing a lack of specific information on the field of soft skills in the area of higher education, and therefore, their theoretical analysis and practical development concerning the employability of the group in question. The actions of the universities appear to be more specific and will get more profitable effects in long term. Collaboration remains the first step in improving the educational ecosystem. The public and private sectors and HEI need to align objectives in order to amplify the effectiveness of policies and the impact of investments. It is essential to develop a shared agenda, capable of aligning objectives and strategies to develop the skills of young people. Part no 3. Primary Research on Soft Skills Mapping – The mapping of soft skills with employability was carried out with the full involvement of the project consortium. The first step in the research procedure was the review of secondary sources. Literature studies were aimed not only at building methodological foundations for the correct design of research. Their aim was also to ensure the substantive correctness of the design of the research tools and the proper focusing of the center of gravity in the field of research on the explanation of the scientific problem presented in the project. The conducted survey research aimed at mapping soft skills and their relationship with employability has produced a lot of valuable information. Diversified in terms of industry and sector, and at the same time an international research sample, the obtained results are of a cross-sectional character and allow for the construction of interesting conclusions on the role of soft skills in the contemporary labor market. Users can consult for free both the full report and the executive summary, which pinpoints main results and findings form the primary and secondary assessment (available in Multilanguage version EN, PL, HR, IT, LV, BG, ES).

What soft skills for employability? Supporting capacity building and professional development of HE students

New ESSENCE cross-country report on soft skills and employability released

In September 2021 ESSENCE consortium released publicly results of its mapping activities undertaken within Intellectual Output 2. The mapping was undertaken over spring and summer of 2021 covering almost 180 company representatives from 14 European countries. This activity undertaken by all consortium members aimed to unveil the palette of soft skills required by employers, the type of soft skills possessed by employees and the kind of training offered by employers to employees in order to boost their soft skills. Results obtained through in-depth interviews with company representatives across the Europe have revealed several stylised facts regarding the soft skills role in the employability. The mapping yielded many examples of good practices in the area of soft skills development among businesses, education providers and also through informal trainings. However, these findings seem to contrast the information collected through in-depth interviews with company representatives. As these interviews revealed, the importance of soft skills is recognised and companies consider them relevant for own success but at the same time limited efforts are being invested in the development of such skills among the employees. Rather, it appears that the care about soft skills development is delegated to those in greatest need of them, the employees who are forced to search for ways of continuous upskilling. It seems that in most companies the observing of person during the interview or at workplace still remains dominant method for assessment of whether the individual has appropriate soft skills. Across countries little evidence was found of special competence tests being carried out to establish the type and level of competences possessed by employees. More importantly, those responsible for the development of soft skills such as universities seem to opt for informal soft skills development through additional courses, trainings or workshops. This points to the mismatch between supply and demand of educational and training content which is not country-specific but rather systemic. The added value of survey also lies in its identification of skills most sought by companies. As evidence revealed, skills such as complex problem solving, critical thinking, coordination or emotional intelligence increase the employability chances. However, at the same time most of prospective employees demonstrate the lack of these exact skills pointing to further misalignments. What is most concerning from our survey is that the majority of surveyed companies do not provide their employees with formal soft skills training due to high workload and costs. In fact, most employees seem to be pointed to online sources in their efforts to improve own soft skills. This makes it clear that there is the need to develop trainings for young people looking to develop and improve their soft skills which is one of the objectives of the ESSENCE project. In next activities ESSENCE will prepare training and educational materials which aim to increase employability of young job seekers by boosting their soft skills. As results of these activities will be freely available they will help not only those in need of such trainings but also to all instructors in the area of soft skills thus creating widening effects far beyond the boundaries of ESSENCE consortium. For more information on IO2 mapping results visit: http://projectessence.eu/mapping.php

ESSENCE project deliverables were presented at an international interdisciplinary scientific conference

The UE-Varna ESSENCE team presented their research from the completed first stage of the ESSENCE project (Enhance Soft Skills to Nurture Competitiveness and Employability) at the 14th International and Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference ‘Vanguard Scientific Instruments in Managementད’, organised online by UNWE and the Bulgarian Academic Simulation and Gaming Association between 10 and 14 Sep 2021. Diana Miteva, Petar Petrov, PhD, and Kristana Ivanova made an overview analysis of Bulgarian national policies focused on learners’ soft skills development. In addition, they outlined initiatives and programmes developed by businesses in Bulgaria for employees’ soft skills development. Achievements were highlighted, challenges and underutilised opportunities in the Bulgarian soft skills development area were discussed against the background of current global and European trends. The presented country report is part of large-scale research on soft skills development in Bulgaria involving the other significant stakeholders: higher education institutions that work in close collaboration with businesses on soft skills development. Within this Erasmus+ strategic partnership project the team collaborates closely with universities and business organisations from seven European countries targeting soft skills development in students as a means of improving their competitiveness. In this first part of the ESSENCE project (2021 -2022), researchers from the seven project partners have surveyed and analysed attitudes on soft skills development in employees/business organisations, as well as the way the elements of the soft skills set are prioritised in their respective countries (Poland, Croatia, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Latvia, and Bulgaria). At the beginning of 2022, modules, activities, tasks, decision making games and case studies will be freely accessible on the ESSENCE platform. These online modules, developed by ESSENCE international team, are intended to develop in students, employees and trainees soft skills such as coordination, creativity, emotional intelligence, decision-making, problem solving, critical thinking and cognitive flexibility. The expected project deliverables are aimed at graduates’ successful inclusion in the open labour market. The modules may be used for training employees in organisations from the public and private sector as well.

Enhance Soft Skills to Nurture Competitiveness and Employability: Consortium joined the second Transnational Project Meeting of ESSENCE

On June 24, 2021, Consortium joined the second transnational meeting of ESSENCE, a Project co-funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Commission, which brings together seven Partners from seven different countries (Bulgaria, Belgium, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Poland, and Spain). The meeting was held in online mode due to COVID-19 restrictions. The main aim of the meeting was the presentation of the literature review, country reports, tools and good practices, and surveys, including a detailed analysis from each Partner. Indeed, during the first phase of ESSENCE implementation, Partners were focused on the review of policy papers, studies, research, articles and other relevant sources and resources. The main objective of the research phase was to understand and analyse soft skills and their connection with employability roles, definitions, regulatory frameworks, quantitative and qualitative indicators and all the relevant trends useful to describe this phenomenon. The project management and methodology involve the development of personalized project management, quality assurance and dissemination plans, monitoring/evaluation tools. Thanks to the presence of Partners with a high level of experience and multiplication potential, the project will benefit from increased visibility and impact at national and European level. ESSENCE’s objective is to improve employability opportunities for HE students leveraging on soft skills development. The objective is to maximize their engagement in the labour market offering professional development paths through training and education on soft and “intangible” skills. ESSENCE develops and deploys a flexible and permeable learning pathway: users can access and exploit the training “on-demand” and “on a need basis” to enhance their soft skills literacy and professional self-empowerment. The ESSENCE Website is now online at http://projectessence.eu/, providing specific info on project aims, activities and results. For further information on ESSENCE: Website: http://projectessence.eu/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectessence.eu/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBkiHG_WcmI0x7lBCknLwPA

Enhance Soft Skills to Nurture Competitiveness and Employability: The ESSENCE website is available online

The ESSENCE project intends to improve employability opportunities for HE students by stimulating soft skills development. The project objective is to maximize their engagement in the labour market by offering professional development paths that go beyond formal HE training. In order to meet the expectations of entrepreneurs and recruiters connected with the most desirable soft skills, the courses will be based on the demand-driven employers’ perspective. The ESSENCE Website is now online at http://projectessence.eu/, providing specific info on project aims, activities and results. The platform will contain all the Project’s information, deliverables and outputs. The OER Platform, developed by IWS, (Internet Web Solutions) will be constantly updated by the partnership as a whole during the project implementation. ESSENCE Website is available in seven languages (English, Polish, Croatian, Italian, Latvian, Bulgarian and Spanish) and is composed of multiple sections freely available to all navigators. HOME: the section introduces users to the ESSENCE platform by highlighting the four main results of the Project: OER Platform Mapping Toolkit Guidelines PROJECT: The ESSENCE project intends to improve employability opportunities for HE students by stimulating soft skills development. The project objective is to maximize their engagement in the labour market by offering professional development paths that go beyond formal HE training. In order to meet the expectations of entrepreneurs and recruiters connected with the most desirable soft skills, the courses will be based on the demand-driven employers’ perspective. PARTNERS: Describes the Partners involved in the ESSENCE Project. OER PLATFORM: The ESSENCE project will create its own OER platform which will be translated into 7 languages to reach different international target groups: students, trainers and teachers who specialize in employment, business consultants with solid experience in the area of HR and PR, entrepreneurs and managing directors. MAPPING: Intellectual Output 2 intends to link soft skills with employability. Mapping the most desirable soft skills among employers within the EU countries. This will be done by analyzing the sources and basic research (100 questionnaires distributed among the private sector and business associations) and then identifying the 4-5 most wanted soft skills among job applicants. The ESSENCE project is a specific response to the needs of the labour market, which are in line with the interests of university students, HR specialists and employers. TOOLKIT: Intellectual Output 3 responds to the needs specified in the application by filling the educational gap among candidates present in the labour market. The state-of-the-art analysis shows that there is a need to provide operational and user-friendly training resources for future managers who may be excluded from the labour market due to a lack of adequately developed soft skills. GUIDELINES: Intellectual Output 4 consists of two components, guidelines for the use of the project's results and the results beyond the scope of the partnership, including geographic scope. The guidelines will aim to mainstream project materials and sustain their dissemination after Erasmus + co-financing ends, and a soft skills manifesto aimed at universities to increase student employability and empower them in the business community and organizational environment. GLOSSARY: Will define and explain the main terms related to Soft skills development. NEWS: To remain always updated with ESSENCE latest developments. ASSOCIATES: in order to involve as many Associated Partners as possible and spread the word about ESSENCE to end-users, targets, general public and ultimate beneficiaries. ESSENCE is managed by eight Partners from seven countries, Poland, Croatia, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Bulgaria, and Spain, representing different backgrounds, and is co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. For further information on ESSENCE: http://projectessence.eu/ https://www.facebook.com/projectessence.eu/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBkiHG_WcmI0x7lBCknLwPA

RELATING SOFT SKILLS TO EMPLOYABILITY: THE ESSENCE PROJECT IS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED

On February 17th, 2021, the consortium joined the online Kick-Off Meeting of ESSENCE (Enhance Soft Skills to Nurture Competitiveness and Employability), a Project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission, which brings together 7 Partners from 7 different countries (Bulgaria, Belgium, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Poland and Spain). The Kick-Off Meeting, hosted by University of Information Technology and Management (Rzeszow – PL), was originally planned in Brussels, but has been rescheduled online due to COVID-19 restrictions. ESSENCE’s objective is to Improve employability opportunities for HE students leveraging on soft skills development. The objective is to maximize their engagement in the labour market offering professional development paths through training and education on soft and “intangible” skills. ESSENCE develops and deploys a flexible learning pathway: users can access and exploit the training “on-demand” and “on a need basis” to enhance their soft skills literacy and professional self-empowerment. Back in 2016, analysts from the World Economic Forum foreseen a major switch in what would have been by 2020 the “top 10 skills” for employability, recruitment, career development and business competitiveness. According to the report, the opportunity for fresh graduates and HE students to compete on the job market would depend increasingly on soft and relational skills, rather than mere technical competences… WEF’s findings are corroborated by numerous international and academic resources that pinpoint with great emphasis the relevance of soft skills for employability in the new incoming decade. On the basis of that, in the following two years ESSENCE will sustain the development among HE students of intangible and soft skills (such as sense of initiative, critical thinking, creativity and people management) to better strengthen their employability competitiveness in the labour market its innovative methodology relies on demand-drive and bottom up approaches that will lead partners in the creation of several strategic results: Online interactive platform (OER Platform) in Multilanguage version Transnational report highlighting the “most wanted” soft skills for employability in the EU labour market (desk research + survey conducted among 100 employers) Online business glossary to be used as a concepts-map as well as a reference to orientate students across the universe of soft skills Custom-made training courses related to self-empowerment soft skills for employability Visibility Events in the participating countries and international awareness of the project Moreover, Partners foresee that project results will be disseminated, mainstreamed and made visible to an overall audience of more than 4 Millions contacts – as an estimated sum from the engagement of the public via Offline and Online communication.