The importance of transferable skills in higher education and the labour market
Authors
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Károly Zerényi
AffiliationKároly Zerényi graduated at the Budapest Business University Faculty of Commerce, Hospitality and Tourism as economist and teacher of economics (with specialization in tourism and catering). He is a PhD candidate at the Doctoral School of Education of Eötvös Loránd University, who is currently working in the Hungarian Central Statistical Office as a statistical analyst. His research interest is the matching/mismatching between qualifications and job requirements, focusing on the importance of transferable skills in higher education and the labour market.
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Zsuzsanna Mátrai
AffiliationZsuzsa Mátraiis DSc, professor emerita of Eötvös Loránd University. Her research fields are the follows: history of education of the USA, social science education, assessment and evaluation, examination systems, curriculum theory and research methodology. She is the Hungarian representative of many international research projects connecting the topics of citizenship education, leaving examination system and subject item banking. She was the member, secretary and then president of the Educational Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, furthermore several international professional organizations including the International Association for Educational Assessment.
Abstract
In a fast-changing world, in addition to the amount of knowledge the quality of knowledge becomes also important, which can be characterized with among others transferable skills. The aim of this paper is to present the interpretations and alternative development methods of transferable skills in higher education, furthermore to review the empirical research in this topic. There is no a common interpretation of transferable skills, but the generic skills are basically considered to be transferable skills. Besides, transferable skills are closely linked to employability as well. Work-integrated learning, which can provide some development methods for transferable skills, is designed to strengthen the relationship between higher education and the world of work. Based on the empirical research, employers are most satisfied with communication skills, team-working skills, presentation skills and computer skills of the graduates. However, they perceived among others a lack of their problem-solving and self-management skills as well as reflective thinking.
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