The importance of soft skills for employability and the role of Higher Education: undergraduates’ perceptions

Promoting students’ employability requires not only guaranteeing the expected knowledge but also a set of soft skills that allows them to perform their professions well but also taking in account the flexi‐bility and changes of organizational contexts. Higher education institutions (HEIs) should satisfy stu‐dents’ need for knowledge and soft skill development. Therefore, the aim of this empirical research is to investigate undergraduates’ perceptions with respect to some soft skills prioritised in the current la‐bour market context, the skills they believe they have, and the role of HEIs in providing activities to support their employability development. This study, as part of wider research, was carried out at uni‐versity of Padova. The survey developed in English/Italian language involved 2,834 students belonging to three different areas of knowledge: Education, Engineering, and Agriculture and Veterinary Medi‐cine. Findings show that students seem to have an awareness of the unbalanced development of their own soft skills compared those demanded by the labour. They recognize the relevance of the liaison between what they learn at university and the real world for their employability and soft skill develop‐ment, outlining the responsibility of universities in supporting graduates' employability.