How to encourage soft skills in the classroom by a work-related assignment: an Italian experience.

Within the framework of modernization of higher education systems in Europe, universities are invited to go beyond a knowledge-based perspective, focused on disciplinary approaches and to be more concentrated on encouraging soft skills to deal with today’s complex and unpredictable career paths (European Commission, 2013). The literature about Work-Related Learning (WRL) and Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) offers research evidences about the contribution of work-related experiences to the development of soft skills (Freudenberg, Brimble, & Cameron, 2011) and the development of knowledge and professional competencies (Hughes & Moore, 1999; Subramaniam, & Freudenberg, 2007). The paper presents an Italian work-related experience developed within the course of “Organizational Intervention Research Methods” which involved 22 master’s degree students. The work-related assignment will be described as well as the content analysis process of the 22 collected texts and the findings about the development of soft skills recognized by the students.