“Niet-routinematige vaardigheden in hbo-profielen”

Authors: Jim Allen, Barbara Belfi, Didier Fouarge, Niels Holtrop, Sven Kozole

“Niet-routinematige vaardigheden in hbo-profielen”

Automation and globalisation are changing the roles of workers on the Dutch labour market. Routine tasks can be performed by machines or can be outsourced to other outsourced to other countries. This does not yet apply to non-routine tasks, which may even become more numerous and complex as a result of increasing automation and globalisation. As tasks change, so does the demand for skills by employers who increasingly value non-routine skills (also called broad skills such as creativity, analytical and communication skills). Higher education institutions need to respond to this changing demand. In this study we offer, by means of text analyses, for the first time a quantification of the extent to which to which non-routine skills are incorporated in the current profile descriptions of higher education (HE) programmes. In addition, we examine the extent to which graduates of these programmes indicate that they actually possess these skills and the extent to which these skills are required by their employers. This multi-method approach thus increases the insight into the supply of non-routine skills among higher education graduates on the one hand and the demand for these skills by the labour market on the other. Our text analysis approach to educational profiles is innovative and is being applied for the first time in this context. This research therefore offers a proof of concept for application in other domains.

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