A global framework to describe and analyse transferable skills

Abstract

Employers increasingly require transferable skills (TS) as an attribute of university graduates. In combination with deep disciplinary knowledge, TS enable graduates to address future societal challenges, navigate a constantly evolving labor market and ensure Europe’s global competitiveness. Despites a widespread approval to foster such cross-cutting skills, agreement on how to define them and how to estimate their mastery is somehow limited. The aim of this report is therefore to focus in 12 “must needed skills” and to propose for each one: a definition + descriptors to qualify the levels of achievement (novice, intermediate, advanced) that may be gained through teaching and learning activities. This provides criteria to identify and state more explicitly at which proficiency level a given skill is developed within a teaching and learning activity.