This initiative was launched to address a critical need: to equip knowledge transfer (KT) professionals with the personal and interpersonal skills needed to bridge academia and business effectively. The KT SoftSkills project has been running for over two and a half years already and the goal is to launch a soft skills training programme at the end of the 2025. Here’s a look at what we’ve achieved so far and what’s coming next.
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Investigating the current scope of soft skill training
We kicked off the project by understanding the current state of soft skills training around the world. We interviewed KT professionals, researchers, innovation officers and business liaisons across Europe to find out what soft skills matter most in their work and how the training can be most impactful. Altogether we conducted 60 qualitative interviews and 6 desk research reports.
We validated the research results with the help of KT professionals in four validation meetings held in Bologna, Helsinki, Leiden and Warsaw. The validation meetings concurred with our findings and gave us even deeper insights of the European mindset regarding the need of soft skills in KT activities as well as started to paint the picture of the most vital skills needing training.
Identifying the Core Soft Skills for KT Professionals
With the learnings from the investigation phase, we started to identify the most important soft skills. We identified 25 soft skills and after careful consideration we selected 8 most vital skills to be included for the training programme. The selected skills are:
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Test your skills!
Many times people think that they have sufficient soft skills but in reality they do not know the level of their skills. That's why we wanted to create a self-assessment framework and an online tool for measuring KT professionals’ soft skills exactly. The tool was tested and validated with the help of KT professionals. The tool helps to understand what kind of training is needed for different skills and we are constantly testing new ways of utilising the tool in modern worklife. The free tool is available online.
Whats next?
As the project comes closer to the end, the pace of doing increases. We are currently finalising the teaching materials for the KT SoftSkills training course, and are happy to announce, that the course is piloted in Finland, Italy and Poland in the fall 2025! We hope that with the help of the pilot participants we can crystallise the key contents of the course and create the best possible soft skill course. The project culminates in our National Events as well as in the Final event in Bologna, where KT professionals get to hear what we have created.
Stay tuned for more information in our social media channels!
CO-FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
IN COLLABORATION
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