Description du projet :
Higher education institutions (HEIs) in Europe and in Switzerland play a crucial role in setting up the necessary mechanisms to train and cultivate soft skills. International student mobility (ISM) is an important instrument for the development of these skills. That program is even more important that the need for such skills in the national, and global professional market has increased during recent years. Inspired by the COST Scheme, this project stands as complementary interdisciplinary research devoted to ISM and their impact on student post-mobility employability and related personal outcomes.
We adopt a mixed empirical methodology (qualitative and quantitative) in this project. First, based on competence-based approach, organisational and human resource management theories, we make (1) a longitudinal quantitative analysis with different groups, students who have applied to make an ISM, student upon coming back from ISM (control group: student who have not experienced ISM), mobile graduates 6 months after graduation (control group: graduates without ISM). These surveys at different time periods provide the global trends progress of the importance of ISM in the development of students’ soft skills and consequently in their employability, satisfaction and organisational commitment. (2) We make survey with actual and potential employers of ISM students (the managerial and HR staff of private and public companies) to compare their perceptions with students and graduates.
this project will support the garnering of valuable scientific insights on soft skills, which will enable ISM students to effectively leverage these competences, leading to increased agility and job satisfaction in the long run. It highlights the value of incorporating soft skills alongside hard skills as a strong asset in promoting the sustainable employability of students. In addition, triangulating the different perceptions by surveying students, graduates and employers is a novelty in the literature that allows us to measure with exactitude the impact of the ISM on employability and related personal outcomes in terms of satisfaction and engagement. This triangulation in both Swiss and Spanish contexts together with deeper interviews will help HEIs to develop common policies and mechanisms that better meet students' and labour market needs, shape ISM's framework to promote students' soft skills development for sustainable employability and satisfaction.
Research team within HES-SO:
Ben Hamida Lamia
, Kouadio Armand Brice
Partenaires académiques: Cullinan John, University of Galway (Ireland); Perez-Encinas, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Christof Van Mol, Tilburg University
Partenaires professionnels: Maude Theurillat, Haute Ecole de Santé Arc
Durée du projet:
01.01.2024 - 01.01.2028
Montant global du projet: 358'163 CHF
Statut: Ongoing
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