Soft skills, namely social and personal competences, make us unique as human beings. It is no longer enough to simply possess the actual technical skills needed to perform a job. Employees will have to have the right combination of soft and technical skills to succeed. Several studies show that “Future Hot Skills” such as empathy, creativity and complex problem solving are highly demanded on the labour market. Students of today face different challenges: they will be required to work in cross sectoral teams or need to adapt more quickly, e.g. in times of crisis. In order to ensure employability in the digital era, students all over Europe should have their unique value in mind and be able to present their unique set of skills employer friendly in a more digitalized world of work.
Because Vocational Education & Training (VET) is still one of the key paths to enter the labour market, the project focuses on learners conducting or finishing initial VET programmes and applying for an internship or job - nationally or abroad. It provides information and tools to them and their educators to support the (soft) skills mapping and presenting process.
Making the decisive difference: Younique4EU aims to make students aware of their individual set of soft skills as bonus to convince employers, e.g. when applying for an EU internship or on the European labour market.
Presenting at distance: To be professionally mobile students learn to present themselves optimally as intern or employee to the European host company at a great distance via online platforms or digital media.
Exploiting digital opportunities for applications: Students learn how to best exploit social networks and digital means to promote and present their unique personal and social competences online during the application process.
Strengthening educators and companies: Younique4EU will support mentors in their role as guide of students in their application process and enable them to better understand the needs of “generation Z”, promote the students' soft skills development and support them in the application phase. Companies will be equipped with the necessary know-how on modern recruitment strategies, for example by using modern media in the acquisition process.
The project is being implemented from October 2019 to November 2021.
