This report identifies effective strategies to tackle skills imbalances in Spain. It provides an assessment of practices and policies in the following areas: the collection and use of information on skill needs to foster a better alignment between skills acquisition and labour market needs; education and training policies targeting skills…

The Erasmus programme represents one of the most popular policy measures of the European Union among its citizens. The aim of this paper is to explore the causal effect of this mobility action on labour market outcomes and skills' development in Spain. In order to do so, this research exploits the Spanish University Students Employability Survey…

Background: This article explores the social life within and outside the university of 17 young Spanish people with intellectual disabilities studying in a postsecondary education programme. This programme offers training for inclusion in the labour market. Students obtain a certificate, which is not an official university degree. Methods:…

Purpose: To analyse the degree to which elite student athletes acquire different soft skills (resilience, creativity, proactivity and problem solving) and the role they play in their perceived employability. Design/methodology/approach: The study assessed 163 elite Spanish student athletes. A validated survey to measure perceived employability and…

This article explores cross-country patterns in how conditions relating to family background, education, and the labor market are related to literacy and numeracy skills. It seeks to assess whether these patterns are in agreement with models of skills formation as identified in the political economy literature. The novelty of this article resides…

This report identifies effective strategies to tackle skills imbalances, based on five country-specific policy notes for France, Italy, Spain, South Africa and the United Kingdom. It provides a comparative assessment of practices and policies in the following areas: the collection and use of information on skill needs to foster a better alignment…

In recent decades employability has become more visible and is part of the agenda of European universities, leading to a closer link between higher education and the labour market. In this context, the objectives of this study are: to analyse the approach to employability developed by the university; to find out the influence of employability…

To date, the knowledge and use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) has become an almost essential requirement when someone wants to find employment in our society. For this reason, this study aims to analyze the importance that students of the Faculty of Business Studies and Tourism of the University of Huelva (Spain) give to the…

This article shows the result of an international project from the European Commission, and it aimed to analyse 30 cases of effective European entities in the field of adult education, from Poland, Spain, Finland and Italy. The objective was to collect the best strategies that generate good employment and social inclusion results. The research…

Lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important in today's societies. Individuals need to develop their skills through training in order to be successfully integrated in the labor market. We use data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies to investigate gender differences in training across 12 countries. We…

Rapid technological advances can have an impact on personal, social and professional development. Implications for education include changes in the demand for knowledge and skills as well as expanding possibilities for teaching and learning.

This paper looks at the importance of mechanisms that give formal recognition to vocational skills acquired through work-based learning and how such mechanisms might be developed. It describes how skill recognition can benefit individuals, employers and society as a whole, and identifies in which contexts skill recognition has the highest…

The study, upon which this special issue focuses, used narrative interviews to investigate how learning can support workers' transitions in the labour market in five European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain). The five countries were chosen to represent very different contexts in the way learning can support career and labour…

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the link between age and proficiency in information-processing skills, based on information drawn from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). The data reveal significant age-related differences in proficiencies, strongly suggesting that proficiency tends to "naturally" decline with age. Age…

A study explored questions on changing skill requirements of small firms in the services sector that are internationalizing their activities. These seven European Union (EU) member states were involved: Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The services sector accounted for a significant part of the EU…