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2023 - Volume 7 - Number 1

Soft Skills and Competence Education in Promoting the Twenty-First Century Philosophy of Life

Ilda Kashami * ORCID: 0000-0001-8084-5094
Mediterranean University of Albania, Faculty of Law and Humanities, Tirana, ALBANIA

Arjan Curi * ORCID: 0000-0002-9486-6096
Mediterranean University of Albania, Faculty of Law and Humanities, Tirana, ALBANIA

Open Journal for Educational Research, 2023, 7(1), 23-36 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojer.0701.03023k
Received: 6 June 2023 ▪ Revised: 10 July 2023 ▪ Accepted: 20 July 2023

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
The present paper aims to explore the construct and effects of soft and transversal skills to developing efficiently competent students. The methodological construct of the present study is a mixed one. The study design is probabilistic and the method used in it is of the transversal typology. The final answers were collected in a sample cohort of 500 valid responses in three years of undergraduate studies at the Mediterranean University of Albania with a gender distribution of 335 girls (67%) and 165 boys (33%). The results revealed that the sub-tests with the major significant indices were positive attitude and spirit of initiative (r=.567; p<0.05), teamwork and collaboration (r=.601; p<0.05), and communication channels (r=.81; p<0.05). Pearson inter-correlations indices for the 1st and 2nd factor of the soft-skills sub-skills found that the most significant index is related to the sense of motivation axis (optimism and control of the future, legitimate anger, self-esteem, and self-efficacy) (Sig2. p=0.01<0.05, r=.7054) over the communication resources (persuasion, adversity management, and creativity) (Sig2. p=0.01<0.05, r=.504). ANOVA test indices showed a strong difference in females (F=1.874; MS=3.2003; df=1.5) and an inverse but the stable difference between the male gender and optimism for the future (F=1.3085; MS=-1.111; df=1.5). In conclusion, indices of the current work revealed the impact that a healthy and optimistic motivation cause on the willingness of learning new skills and competencies and developing an efficient student for the working world. The authors recommend drawing attention to conducting more training programs within the academic curricula for fostering and providing students with basic and advanced skills and competencies to be fully adjusted to the European Union philosophy of life and employability world.

KEY WORDS: soft skills, competencies, motivation, communication, employability.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Ilda Kashami, Mediterranean University of Albania, Faculty of Law and Humanities, Tirana, ALBANIA.

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