Make soft skills stronger? An online enhancement platform for higher education

Abstract

The growing attention of the labour market to soft skills has led universities, in different countries to develop tools for the promotion and the assessment of generic skills. The studies carried out at the University of Turin on the design, implementation and testing of the Passport platform fall into this area. Passport is an articulated online course focusing on 12 soft skills. The course includes: a self-assessment Scale, 87 online activities (video clips, reflections, case studies...) and a final certification of the acquired skills. The effectiveness of the Passport course in favouring the academic success of fist-year students in terms of credits acquired, is attested by a previous follow-up research. The present study, on the other hand, aims to evaluate the contribution of the Passport training in improving students’ soft skill profile.

Keywords

• Soft skills
• Higher Education
• University students
• Online course