Paris/Jakarta, 31 October 2023: In collaboration with the OECD Platform for Entrepreneurship Education Collaboration and Engagement Network (EECOLE), the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) has launched a new short webinar series aimed at discussing the role of skills and higher education in the development of entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems.  

The third episode of the series, entitled ‘Measuring and certifying the transversal skills of students’ featured Prof Franca Cantoni from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy. Key issues that were discussed during the webinar included:

1. More evidence on transversal and entrepreneurial skills is needed: Prof Cantoni and her team are developing new research by measuring the transversal skills of over 300 students and analyzing their academic performance for correlations;
2. How to evaluate impact: The impact of this kind of evaluations is multi-faceted. Students gain valuable insights into their skills profile, teachers gain a deeper understanding of students' learning potential, and placement offices can offer tailored services to students and employers by making entrepreneurial skills visible
3. Developing International Standards for Entrepreneurial Skills: In the future, through international collaborations sophisticated reporting systems might be established to formally certify students' entrepreneurial mindsets. Such initiatives have the potential to enhance pedagogical quality and make transversal skills highly visible in the labor market.

The webinar was co-hosted by Dr Raffaele Trapasso, Ms Maria Sobron Bernal (OECD), and Dr Giulia Ajmone Marsan (ERIA).