Abstract
Fundamental changes in working life highlight the demands on the co-operation between the educational sector and working life, that should contribute to students’ employability. In addition to discipline-specific expertise, the development of working life skills has received increasing attention when it comes to employment. Drawing on data from Finnish universities of applied sciences (n=5) and universities (n=3), this paper examines how students (n=380) value the generic competences needed in in the world of work. The study is based on European reforms of labour markets and educational structures. This paper adds to current discourses around employability by highlighting differences between students of universities and universities of applied sciences. The implications of this research suggest paying attention to the concepts of agency, expertise and working life skills as outlined in the integrative pedagogy model, as well as emphasising the requirement for soft skills and generic competences needed in working life. 
 
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Highlights
Incremental changes in employment are essential drivers for the development of cooperation between the educational sector and working life
This study aims to explore the kinds of generic competences students in higher education (HE) consider to be most important; it seeks to determine which qualities they characterize as secondary
45.3% of them asserted that multicultural skills are important working life skills, making their answers somewhat inconsistent
Summary
Incremental changes in employment are essential drivers for the development of cooperation between the educational sector and working life. In the development of Finnish higher education (HE), the Ministry of Education and Culture (2018) has set the key objective of accelerating the efficient transition to working life and rapid employment. The development of competences required in the world of work has received increasing attention in higher education (Fallows & Steven, 2000; Tomlinson, 2007; 2017). The rapidly changing needs of working life emphasize the importance of generic competences as part of education and training (Badcock et al, 2010; Murtonen et al, 2017; Tomlinson, 2007; Virtanen & Tynjälä, 2019)
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