Best Practices for Soft Skills Development at the Undergraduate Level: a European Project

According to many documents issued by the European Union soft skills are closely connected with employability, particularly with regard to the transition of young people into the labour market. Nevertheless the programmes of most European universities are still focused on teaching traditional scientific skills rather than paying attention to soft and complementary skills. This article illustrates the results of the ModES project, carried out between 2009 and 2012 with the aim to integrate a common European programme on soft skills in the academic curricula. As a result a new curriculum has been developed to enrich the students' profile with new employment-oriented competencies. In order to achieve these goals, the ModEs project relied upon interaction between the three main sectors involved in research: universities, halls of residence and companies.