Questionnaires

In January 2018, the VET_GPS consortium launched a questionnaire addressed to representatives from companies and VET organisations and aiming to answer two main questions:

• To what extent do companies and business' representatives consider the acquisition and development of soft skills by young workers as a key factor for their success?
• Which soft skills are identified by companies and business' representatives as most critical for the integration and performance of young workers at the workplace?

The questionnaire was active until May of 2018 in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and German and the partnership collected a total of 175 responses from representatives of companies and VET organisations.

The results of these questionnaires are available in the document National validation of VET_GPS soft skills list, available here, but overall the questionnaire had shown that:

• Soft skills are very highly valued when selecting a young person for a job, as or more so than the technical knowledge a young person brings;
• Over 80% consider that soft skills are essential for successfully completing a traineeship;
• Some 23% of companies do not consider that trainees or young workers bring the necessary soft skills to the workplace and a further almost 20% cannot affirm the soft skills levels of trainees;
• Positive Attitude, Adaptability, Problem Solving and Teamwork were the most highly valued competencies at National level. Interpersonal relations, communication and critical thinking also figure highly. Globally over all countries, Positive Attitude, Commitment and Teamwork stand out as the three most valued competencies.

The results from these questionnaires were essential to partners structure the Guide for the integration of the Soft Skills in VET offer, available for download in the section Resources.