EMPLOYABILITY : SOFT SKILLS' PLAY CRUCIAL ROLE: EUROBAROMETER.

When it comes to graduate recruitment, employers consider the following skills to be important: ability to work well in a team (98%), to adapt to new situations (97%), communication skills (96%), and knowledge of foreign languages (67%). Furthermore, almost 50% of companies with considerable international business identified knowledge of foreign languages as the most important skill for the future. These data are included in an Eurobarometer survey on graduate employability, published by the European Commission, on 2 December 2010.

The survey also shows that work experience was deemed a crucial asset by 87% of the recruiters. When asked to choose one action universities should take to improve the employability of their graduates, 39% mentioned sector-specific traineeship as an integral part of a study programme.

The question of competition in the labour market needs to be addressed from a European perspective: the survey found that over...