About Project

At present EU countries seem to have various methodologies and approaches both on assessment and on teaching of soft skills. At the same time, there are many different ways of defining and describing soft skills.

SOSTRA project is aiming to identify the need and importance of soft skills in European Adult Education. We are cooperating to intertwine digital and competence-based education into soft skills development in the field of European adult education. By creating a digital open badge-driven learning process, the project introduces new ways to recognize prior skills and competence, as well as a unique opportunity to gain new skills and knowledge.

Target groups

The SOSTRA project invites Adult educators, Managers and HR staff (recruiters) in educational organizations, in-company trainers, training consultants and policy makers on local, regional, national and European level to join the partners in discussions and different project activities and finally in utilizing the project results.

What are soft skills?

In our context we defined Adult Educator soft skills as transferable personal attributes and abilities that enable to interact effectively and harmoniously with others both at intra- and inter-personal and at socio-emotional level.

What are digital open badges?

Digital badges are electronic microcredentials that can be used to identify and promote competences. Badges (such as the Mozilla Open Badge, Badgr) refer to the student’s, the earner’s, participation in education or skills development; they may also be awarded following completion of a certificate. The Open Badge architecture is built upon an identification image, graphic or icon and the accompanying information content. This content shows the name of the badge, issuer identification, the knowledge and expertise criteria required, and a description of the evidence (e.g., an online document) (Abramovich, Schunn, & Higashi, 2013; Brauer & Ruhalahti, 2014).