Higher education is constantly facing new challenges and, apart from fulfilling its intellectual role, has to meet broader economic and societal expectations, which makes it increasingly important to educate professionals with specific knowledge who are most likely to meet the requirements of the labor market (Castro-Levy 2001, Hurtado 2007, Teichler 2011). Adaptation to these challenges and changes is reflected in policy decisions that continue to call upon higher education institutions to shape their curriculum and qualification offer to meet more directly the skills needs of a knowledge economy (Elliott 2017).  The rapid development of technology and the digital world, as well as major changes coming with globalization, have significantly transformed the labor market, the content of the tasks to be performed and the expectations of employers (Pogátsnik 2019).  Doing work requiring non-cognitive skills have not been automated, i.e. tasks and processes that require interpersonal skills, high levels of cooperation or emotional intelligence. Robotization and artificial intelligence do not affect soft skills. In the labor market, non-cognitive (soft) skills are particularly important alongside cognitive abilities and skills, the so-called hard skills. As the share of non-automatable work tasks increases, the demand for soft skills also grows (Nagy 2022). Globalization and digitalization have also brought about major changes in the labor market, transforming the content of jobs and employers’ demands. Continuous changes in the labor market and technological development in the 21^st century also affects higher education institutions, and the literature suggests that competence development based on labor market needs will play an increasingly important role.  In the 21^st century, the need to develop competences has gained significance. Most education systems equip graduates with the cognitive skills needed to enter the world of work. However, it is soft skills that enable young graduates to become potential employees (Harrison 2017, Pogátsnik 2019).  

In Hungary, there is a characteristic contradiction: while one of the tasks of higher education is to prepare students for work, higher education institutions often transmit a culture that is different from that of workplaces (Györgyi 2012). Whereas internationally, increasing emphasis is laid on improving the quality of education and on the real function of teaching and learning, Hungarian higher education is characterized by a teacher- and theory-centered approach, which means that knowledge is imparted through lectures and teacher presentations, but these methods do not allow for the development of non-cognitive, soft skills (Kovács 2016). Higher education curricula are still not reflective enough of labor market needs, and the skills acquired in education are far removed from what is needed in work situations (Óbuda University 2018, STEM-Hungary report). Employers’ experience is that it is not enough for new entrants to have adequate qualifications, but that they also need to have soft skills that enable them to adapt to labor market changes (Ailer 2017). While in international practice, many projects focus on the match between competences on the supply and demand side of the labor market (SAKE25, OntoHR26), in Hungary there is no common framework for measuring competences (Balogh 2014).

The gap between labor market needs and the competences possessed by graduates can be reduced through continuous measurement, student and employer feedback and the identification of relevant skills. The aim of our study is to explore the role of higher education in preparing students for the labor market and to examine how it helps students to acquire the skills that are indispensable in the 21^st century. Furthermore, our research investigates graduates’ competences and the extent to which their skills are in alignment with the requirements of the workplace.

Since 2010, the Hungarian Graduate Career Tracking System has been collecting data through its online questionnaire survey module on the status and labor market situation of recent graduates. Our Research Group submitted a data request, in response to which the Education Office provided the data to the research center. The survey is compulsory for all graduates (including graduates of traditional university and college programs as well as those of bachelor, master and undivided master courses) who completed their courses or obtained their degrees in 2015 or 2019, and optional for graduates of higher education-level vocational education and training courses. The questionnaire consists of four major sets of questions, namely on studies, competences, current labor market status and demographics. Each thematic unit contains detailed questions related to the labor market. The data for secondary analysis were processed using SPSS 22.0. During the data collection, respondents were asked to rate the skills and competences listed in the questionnaire according to how much they were needed in pursuing the profession they qualified in. The competences were placed on a five-point Likert scale, with 5 indicating that they were very much needed in the profession in question and 1 indicating that they were not needed at all. Respondents were then asked to rate the same competences according to the extent to which they possessed them at the time of graduation. The Likert scale scores were the same as before. If the respondent had not yet been employed in a job corresponding to their qualification, the questions on competences were not included in the online questionnaire. Given the limitations of the database used for the secondary analysis, we also used qualitative methods to find answers to our research questions, for which purpose we conducted semi-structured interviews with graduate students. We investigated the role of universities in preparing students for the labor market and students’ perceptions of their competence development. The exploratory interview phase of the research addressed these questions from the perspective of expected and existing competences. We interviewed six graduate students who had graduated from a university of arts and sciences in Eastern Hungary in the previous three years. A heterogeneous focus group was formed according to field of study, age and labor market status in order to give us a deeper insight into the students’ experiences of the issue under study.

Our investigation has focused on the role of higher education in preparing students for the labor market, based on the perceptions of graduates. This analysis confirms that the possession of soft skills has become increasingly valued in the labor market, but students’ self-reported possession of these competences is limited. The order of importance of expected competences does not always coincide with the competences possessed by students. Our quantitative research shows that there is a considerable gap between expected and existing competences in the following areas: problem solving, time management, planning skills, practical expertise and conflict management. Although these skills are highly important in the labor market, graduates were less likely to have them. These results are nuanced by the interview findings that university provides a good foundation, but there is not always enough emphasis on the development of soft skills that are important at work. In this respect, the contribution of the university is less evident, while interviewees emphasized the role of student work, mentoring programs and family in the development of competences. One of the challenges for higher education is to meet employers’ needs by developing students’ competences. The analysis of similar large sample databases is of paramount importance as feedback. The significance of our research is also reflected by the fact that we have complemented these quantitative data intended for feedback with the personal experiences of graduates, which further nuance the role of university education in preparation for working life and competence development. During their years in higher education, students should be equipped with a set of competences that will ensure their integration into the labor market. Our current research contributes to this goal by mapping the expected and existing competences areas, pointing out where there is room for development which can contribute to graduates’ success at work.

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