Employability and soft skills: SOCIEUX+ experiences in cooperation   

The identification and valuation of soft skills is an ongoing challenge for employers, jobseekers, and intermediary services, but they also provide an opportunity to enhance the employability of the most vulnerable members of a society. Through peer-to-peer technical cooperation in different countries and sectors, SOCIEUX+ is empowering public actors and stakeholders to strengthen their ability to harness these soft skills.

Soft skills are at the heart of recruitment processes and management methods, and are also important to training managers. These competences may affect the cognitive, emotional, relational, psychological, reflective, and behavioural dimensions of individuals. Examples of soft skills include teamwork, communication, creativity, stress management, and emotional intelligence. There is no consensus on the definition of soft skills, but there is agreement on the necessity of establishing one depending on the context. Definitions vary by intermediary service, company, and jobseeker, and also depend on the economic, social, and cultural specifics in each country.

Within the framework of SOCIEUX+ technical cooperation interventions, several actions have recently been implemented with the common objective of providing institutional partners with concrete tools to enhance the value of knowledge acquired outside of formal work. These initiatives began in 2018 in a partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Employment Promotion of Peru. SOCIEUX+ collaborated with the ministry to update the existing training plan for employable skills on cognitive, socio-emotional, labour market integration, and digital competencies at the national and regional level (2018-08).

SOCIEUX+ has relied on the mobilisation of European public expertise from institutions such as the Public Employment Service of Brussels Capital Region (Actiris Belgium), the French governmental agency Pôle Emploi, Mission Locale du Pays Villeneuvois as well as Mission Locale Technowest, French Ministry of Education, Local Administration Saint-Etienne Métropole (France), and the Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal (SEPE), the regional Department of Education of the Community of Valencia, and the National Association of Active Employment Policies and Promotion of Qualifications (AFEMCUAL, Spain).

Public employment services (PES) represent key partner institutions for SOCIEUX+, as they see the value in these skills and are inclined to promote capacity building among their staff. Partner PES have included:

• The National Employment Agency of Benin (ANPE). SOCIEUX+ cooperation activities included a strong capacity building component for ANPE advisers on consulting and coaching services in soft skills for young people (2017-34).

• The National Employment Fund of Cameroon (FNE), which co-organised remote awareness-raising and training workshops for employment counsellors. This experience allowed FNE to improve the project management modalities of their staff (2019-33).

A number of other actors have also worked with SOCIEUX+ in defining and valuing soft skills. For example, in an action with ANPE Togo, local chambers of commerce, employers’ organisations, civil society, and administrations were identified and will be involved as for January 2022 in a training of trainers on teamwork, stress, and emotional intelligence, especially to assist people in fragile situations or with disabilities (2020-27).

Soft skills are also an important transversal subject for entrepreneurs. For example, they were at the centre of a training course for young business creators in Mauritania with the Patronal Federation of Services and Self Employment and Fondation Deyahi (2020-08).

The Global Initiative on Innovative Employment Services for Youth (YouMatch), an initiative funded by the German cooperation agency GIZ, was an essential initiator of some technical interventions implemented by SOCIEUX+:

• In Senegal, the ongoing action focuses on building a consensus on soft skills within the National Agency Employment (ANPEJ) and other actors in the employment ecosystem, with a particular focus on employment zone differences and social and cultural aspects (2021-11).

• The e-conference “Soft skills: A strategic challenge for youth employment”, was organised in March 2021 with input from YouMatch. SOCIEUX+ participants included two panellists sharing examples of peer-to-peer cooperation and the Director General of ANPE Togo, who appeared as a guest speaker (2020-29).

In addition to the utilization of socio-cultural indicators, the systematic incorporation of the gender dimension in the national, regional and sectoral definition of soft skills has also been an added value of SOCIEUX+ actions on soft skills, such as in Cameroon, Togo, Senegal, Mauritania, Mauritania, Benin and Côte d’Ivoire.

Giuliana De Rosa
 SOCIEUX+ Action Manager