The importance of soft skills in the university academic curriculum: The perceptions of the students in the new society of knowledge

Abstract

This study focuses on the notion of competence in a perspective of structural change. It addresses the academic curriculum and the soft skills essential for the holder of a Bachelor's Degree to adapt to the labour market and endow the citizen with instruments deemed necessary for the integration of the person in the different dimensions of life. Evidence unfolds a great deal of sensitivity on the part of students regarding soft skills. Nonetheless, there are substantial differences among courses and between genders. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey, which was applied to our bachelor students between October 2013 and January 2014. We resorted to the use of the analysis of the main components and we used the VARIMAX method for determining the variance, which is analysed by means of the ANOVA model. The study underpins the importance of autonomy and social and emotional skills in the student's global university education and highlights the sensitivity of the students to transversal competences -soft skills-, as required by the current labour market.