The project is dedicated to elevating the competencies of Knowledge Transfer (KT) professionals, with a particular focus on enhancing soft and transversal skills crucial for effective knowledge transfer.

The KTSoftSkills Investigation Report

The KTSoftSkills Investigation Report is the result of 60 in-depth interviews of KT professionals, which included an examination of the scope of soft skills training included in pre-existing programmes. The report encapsulates the competencies of current training programmes and highlights areas where they can be improved.  

Some key questions addressed by the report are:

·         Which soft skills are most relevant to KT professionals in their current roles?  

·         Which skills will be crucial for the future of the KT profession?

·         How can these soft skills be effectively trained and adopted, by both individuals and groups?

The report emphasises several key points:

1. The soft skills gap: the research successfully identified a soft skills gap amongst KT professionals which will allow the project to deliver tailored content to address this shortage.  

2. Other soft skills: the report highlights the need for new skills beyond those KT professionals are trained in; approaches revealed further categorisations of soft skills need to be developed.  

3. An innovative approach: interviewees shared new innovative approaches to training and skill enhancement programmes for future generations of KT professionals.

4. Training methods: existing training methods and formats were outlined.

Validation Meetings

Following the report validation meetings were held in Poland, Finland, Italy, and Benelux, in which a total of 50 experts participated each providing qualitative feedback on the KTSoftSkills Investigation Report. The invited participants were selected according to several criteria:

• Diversity in experience (less than 3 years; between 3-7 years; more than 7 years)
• Diversity in technical role (Incubation/spin-off support staff; internal brokers; external brokers)
• Diversity in team role (management; team member)  

• Gender diversity

Helsinki Think Company and Sopu Academy, the Finnish partners, said: “The experts accentuated the need for a focused approach to soft skills training, identifying communication, self-reflection, and sales negotiation as top priorities. Practical, roleplay-based training was suggested as more effective, and the importance of a behavioural test for personalised training programmes was highlighted.”

Based on the feedback from the validation meetings, the project consortium can continue with the project. The feedback is especially usefull in the development of the training material, that the project is focusing next.

‍

‍