The objectives:
O2.1. Identify the specific soft skills required for the water management industry workforce
O2.2. Develop a standardized framework for integrating soft skills into higher education curricula for water management.
The Needs assement aims to bridge the gap between the water industry needs and academic offerings, ultimately leading to the upscaled competencies and innovativeness of the workforce in the water sector. These specific objectives are aligned with the overall objective of the SKILLS4Water project to upscale the skills and competencies of young water professionals across European water market, integrate these skills into the higher education curricula, and foster a culture of leadership
and innovation in the water industry.
By conducting the need assessment in the water sector, SKILLS4Water will identify the current trends in the water market across Europe. In addition to the qualitative research in the field, analyses of the various secondary data and reports will provide necessary inputs for developing a standardized framework for integrating soft skills into the higher education curricula for water management, thus providing strong educational base for the future development of soft water related skills and
competences and creating supportive leadership and innovative culture in the water industry.
All this has strong potential to influence the sustainable and resilient water supply for the future generations by informing and guiding policy makers in developing effective water policies and strategies to address current and future water challenges.
Activities:
Activities regarding evaluation of soft skills in the European water sector (A2.1) are directly linked with the specific objective O2.1. All sub activities are important for identifying the specific soft skills required for workforce in the water management industry. The members of the SKILLS4Water project team will be actively involved in the gathering data from various industry stakeholders. The starting point will be the questionnaire which will be created and distributed to the stakeholders through the online platform. After the data collection in this first phase, the focus groups will be organized to gain complete insight into the necessary soft skills in the water sector. All gathered data will be thoroughly analysed, and the findings will be compiled into a comprehensive evaluation report.
The produced evaluation report will be an important input for the framework development (A2.2). Besides the evaluation report, the analyses of the various secondary data and reports will provide necessary inputs for developing a standardized framework. Additionally, valuable input for framework development is analysis of existing curricula and identified gap of soft skills. All these information will enable development of standardized framework for integrating soft skills into the higher education curricula for water management, thus leading to the accomplishment of the specific objective O2.2.
Finally, the members of the SKILLS4Water project team will provide practical guidance for the HEIs on how to implementthe developed framework with special focus on the courses and teaching methods to integrate soft skills necessary for theyoung water professionals’ future careers.
Deliverables & results
1. Evaluation report of soft skills in the European water sector;
2. Standardized framework for integrating soft skills into the higher education curricula for water management;
3. Practical guidance for implementing the framework
