Soft Skills Development among University Staff during Erasmus Plus Mobilities

This paper aims to highlight a less explored dimension of mobility opportunities funded through the Erasmus Plus Programme, namely the development of soft skills as a result of international experiences. The study focuses on identifying key non-technical competences acquired by beneficiaries and on analysing staff perceptions regarding their institutional recognition. Although soft skills may represent a determining factor in the decision to participate in international mobility, beneficiaries often face barriers related to their formal recognition upon return. To explore this issue, a qualitative research design was employed, using an online focus group involving 12 staff members from Ovidius University of Constanța, Romania, holding diverse institutional positions. The findings reveal a low level of institutional recognition of soft skills and underline potential solutions, such as increasing the weight assigned to mobility experiences within internal professional evaluation frameworks and adopting digital micro-credentials in the form of open badges.