A self-assessment online tool for measuring soft skills has been launched by the KT Soft Skills project. The assessment tool helps to understand what level of soft skills training is needed. The tool is available on the project's website.

The online tool allows users to map their level of competence in eight soft skills. The KT Soft Skills project team has identified these eight skills to be the most essential soft skills needed in the field of innovation.

• communication

• teamworking

• networking

• socio-cultural skills

• context awareness

• negotiation

• problem solving

• personal development

Altogether, the project identified and defined 25 important soft skills that foster the knowledge transfer (KT) professionals' collaboration between academia and the business world. The most essential eight skills were selected by testing and validation through interviews with KT professionals and focus groups.

KT professionals work at the interface between academic and business sectors. They often navigate complex negotiations between research, business, and community organisations fostering co-working and innovations. A strong set of soft skills are essential in this work.

Next the project team will develop a soft skills training programme during the spring and summer 2025. The programme will be tested in autumn 2025 and a finalised programme will be launched at the end of 2025.

KT SoftSkills is a collaborative project co-funded by the European Union, that aims to improve the soft skills needed for sustaining fruitful collaboration between academia and the business world by providing KT professionals with a comprehensive set of soft skills to build and manage cooperation partnerships.

KT SoftSkills are done in collaboration with University of Bologna – ASTP  - Netherlands, Helsinki Think Company - Finland, Jagiellonian University - Poland, Netval - Italy, and SOPU Academy - Finland.

For more information visit www.ktsoftskills.eu
X @ktsoftskills

LinkedIn KTSoft Skills

‍