Evaluating The Outcomes of Competence-Based Learning Course: The Field Experience For Training 21st Century Skills In Sofia University

In the age of accelerating automation, companies expect young graduates to demonstrate domain-specific theoretical knowledge, practical skills and a good level of transversal and soft skills. Dominated by core field subjects, the university curriculum often under-estimates the role of soft skills and thus they remain addressed in a sporadic and isolated way. Focusing to fill this gap, a team from Sofia University implemented a transversal course dedicated to “21st Century Skills”, exploring competence-based learning and active learning methods. The present research aims to discuss the outcomes of a field study for implementing the university course - 21st Century skills, focusing on its evaluation and lessons learned. The course is developed in cooperation with the partners from the Erasmus project Catch-21. The structure of the papers is as follows. The first part introduces changing scope and interest to implement competence-based learning courses, dedicated to soft skills such as 21st Century skills in universities. Then, the project Catch-21 is presented in brief. After that, the course curriculum is discussed, including the outcomes of the pilot course delivery in Bulgaria. The final section provides an analysis and evaluation of lessons learned and insights for challenges for integrating competence-based learning and soft-skills courses in universities.