Transversal Competences: Their Importance and Learning Processes by Higher Education Students

Maria Sá,Sandro Serpa

doi:10.3390/educsci8030126

Abstract

At a time when the labour market is blocked and simultaneously rapidly changing, with the emergence of new professional and scientific areas, the higher education mission becomes less indisputable and more indeterminate and challenging. This uncertainty was the leitmotiv for this essay, which aims to discuss the importance of attaining transversal competences in higher education. To achieve this goal, a bibliographical research was carried out on the attention that is currently given by higher education institutions to this topic, how they respond to the need for increasingly more transversal training and how they develop a curriculum that meets these requirements. Thus, in methodological terms, a thorough research on the literature addressing the topic of transversal competences was carried out; subsequently, a document search was conducted and a qualitative review and analysis of the documents collected was performed to justify our stance. Our analysis allowed concluding that the context of indeterminacy regarding the future has variations, considering the geographical and political situation, the social context and the activity sector. Furthermore, attitudes, expectations and predispositions are also critical elements for the success of this process of transversal competences’ attainment. This latter factor is central in this process, as there is often a gap between students’ expectations regarding the competences they expect to attain in higher education and the proposals that frame their training at the micro, meso and macrosocial levels and which take the need to attain transversal competences in higher education for granted.

Highlights

Considering the current reconfiguration of higher education, its vision and mission and its constant search to provide its students with the knowledge and competences that will allow them to succeed in their future professional life, higher education institutions (HEIs) are required to provide their students with a strong technical and scientific training
There has been a huge renewal both in thedefinition of the HEIs’. Mission, in their functioning structure and in the political field and by the growing importance ascribed to employability and the attainment of competences, by their students [16,17,18,19] that may boost this employability [7,15,20]. Both national governments and HEIs themselves have been working towards the convergence of their educational offer, in order to seek to adapt the curricula of their programs to the needs of the labour market and, more than that, to equip their students with transferable competences that will enable them to apply their knowledge in various professional areas [21]
Attitudes, expectations and predispositions of all the stakeholders involved in the educational process are one of the vital elements for the success of this process of attainment of transversal competences

Summary

Introduction

Considering the current reconfiguration of higher education, its vision and mission and its constant search to provide its students with the knowledge and competences that will allow them to succeed in their future professional life, higher education institutions (HEIs) are required to provide their students with a strong technical and scientific training. More than this, HEIs have the task of equipping their students with transversal competences that have the special feature of being transferable to any area of knowledge and whose centrality to the success of graduates in the labour market, together with technical-scientific competences, is widely justified by the literature [1,2,3,4] and by supranational institutions committed to educating and developing citizens [5] among others This scenario makes transversal competences, called horizontal, generic or general competences, a current topic in the present worldwide educational arena [6,7,8]. (2) Transversal competences in a fast-changing professional environment; (3) The relevance of the attainment of transversal competences in higher education; (4) What are higher education institutions doing about it? How are they doing it?; (5) Teaching methods that promote the attainment and development of transversal competences; and (6) Conclusion

The Higher Education Mission and the Place of Transversal Competences

Defining Competence

Transversal Competences and Education

Conclusions