Building up Undergraduate Skills – empirical evidence from a Portuguese University

This paper presents preliminary results of the PSP Project currently undergoing at the Faculty/School of Economics and Management (FEG) of the Catholic University of Portugal (CUP). The PSP Project addresses the students ’ soft skills development within the context of HEI. Works related to contemporary Person-Environment Fit Theories (Chartrand, 1991; Rounds and Hesketh, 1994; Rounds and Tracey, 1990 in Swanson and Fouad, 1999) emphasise the correspondence between one’s personal characteristics and labour context were individuals choose to work: congruence is relevant for both individuals and other constituents. The present study holds the concept of soft skills as the key concept to foster a common understanding between universities and employers concerning employability. Evans and her colleagues (2001) showed that there are different interrelated skills involved for a successful change in an individual’s career organized into 5 clusters. Two main studies were conducted. Study one aimed to identify the Market-Valued Skills Profile of graduates from Economics and Business. Data collection followed two sequential stages: in the first, five semi-structured interviews were conducted with HR managers; in the second stage, data was collected by means of two focus groups which included former students. The data show that soft skills are crucial to economics and management graduates ’ employability and revealed the main skills valued by employers and former students. Study two aimed to assert how confident were the students regarding soft skills, at the early stage of their studies. Moreover, it seemed important to relate the skills ’ development to both individual characteristics and to life experiences, as critical aspects of developmental processes. A sample of 100 first-year students was surveyed using a self-report questionnaire with a 5-point Likert-type scale drawing o