UNPACKING THE NEEDS AND CHALLENGES OF EMBEDDING SOFT SKILLS IN STEM CURRICULA IN EU HEIs

The climate crisis and green transition are reshaping the way STEM young graduates respond to challenges in a rapidly changing workplace.Several studies highlight the emerging role of soft skills, as part of the development of new competences for green jobs.For soft skills to be adopted in green industries, synergies between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and companies are needed.The Erasmus+ SOFTEN project promotes the integration of 'green soft skills' into STEM schools across four HEIs in the EU by training educators and equipping STEM graduates with capabilities needed.As part of the research phase, the project designed a framework about the current needs and challenges of soft skills integration in green STEM curricula in Europe, through mixed-method research.The project's team performed desk research about initiatives in HEIs on soft skills integration in STEM courses, followed by semi-structured interviews with STEM educators and green industry representatives in Greece, Lithuania, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Finland.An online survey was distributed to STEM students in these countries to triangulate results about needs and gaps.The findings were validated through online focus groups.The paper presents the qualitative component of the research, in particular the results of the semi-structure interviews with STEM educators and green economy stakeholders.As such, it contributes to the growing body of literature about mismatches between green soft skills supply side (by HEIs) and demand side (by green industry) across different academic and industry settings in the EU.