The project aims to establish a Soft Skills Development Centre (SSDC) at Armenian National Agrarian University (ANAU), with the support of V4 partner universities – Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra and University of South Bohemia). Training in new soft skills modules, developed during the implementation of the project, will increase the chances of employment of the graduates, as well as advance the opportunities of existing professionals during their working life. The implementation period of the project is: 01/01/2022–30/06/2023. The total budget of the Project is 24,015.00 Euro.

Current issues. It is well-known, the labor market needs highly qualified specialists with both professional and soft skills. It is no secret, that soft skills increase the employability of specialists and facilitate their integration into the professional sphere. Soft skills are especially necessary for agricultural professionals, as their work usually involves multiple stakeholders and organizations. All of the above-mentioned activities require the necessary soft skills: leadership, creativity, teamwork, time management, as well as innovative approaches, etc. Sometimes stakeholders organize trainings for new employees or they personally need to find and participate in some kind of training on soft skills. Of course, most of the above-mentioned activities and trainings are paid by new hires.

The main goal of this Project is to increase the future employability of the students and professionals in the labor market through the development and improvement of soft skills by providing various modules during formal and informal education. The project will create five modules: Communication skills;

• Communication skills;
• Critical thinking and problem solving;
• Leadership;
• Conflict and time management;

Within the framework of the Project ANAU will create a Soft Skills Development Center (SSDC), where students and agricultural specialists will get necessary soft skills competencies during the trainings, organized by ANAU. The above-mentioned modules will be taught at the newly established SSDC. The training will be conducted by the ANAU staff, trained and re-qualified at V4 universities within the framework of this Project. Long-term experience in teaching and learning soft skills of V4 partner universities will be used for the implementation of the project. They will help ANAU create and develop modules as well as train ANAU staff on soft skills teaching.

The innovative nature of this project lies in the fact that the appropriate tools are being created at the ANAU for the first time, and it will ensure the sustainability of the formation and development of students’ soft skills. This is the first project at ANAU, the main goal of which is the development of the necessary infrastructure with human and non-human resources to ensure the sustainability of students’ soft skills development. At the same time, it is ANAU’s new approach to promoting education and student employment opportunities to meet the labor-market needs via soft skills development.

In addition, the Soft skills Development Center, which will be the main outcome of this project, will ensure the lifelong learning of professionals working in different areas and interested in developing soft skills. Due to the implementation of this project, the necessary conditions will be created at the ANAU for the development of students’ and current employees’ soft skills. As a result, they will be more competitive in the labor market and will be able to find work easily, as well as get adapted to new working conditions. Moreover, they will show new approaches and critical thinking in solving professional problems. All these competencies will promote their integration into labor environment and the final result will be the increased work outcome. This is the main added value of the proposed Project.

The main target groups of the Project are: Bachelor, Master and PhD students of ANAU, academic and administrative staff of ANAU and professionals of the field.