Developing Students’ 21st Century Skills through the Project Studies

21st century has produced numerous innovations that demand new skills – the skills of the 21st century. Educational establishments prepare the young generation for adult life as managers, citizens, employees, parents and entrepreneurs. To achieve their full potential as adults, the young generation has to acquire various skills and knowledge such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, communication and self-management – the skills, which are often referred to as 21st century skills. 

In my master’s thesis I was focused on project management skills and investigating what kind of conceptions students have about EU funded projects, and on determining the importance of implementing such training in the future in the universities’ curricula for developing students’ own skills and competencies for further successful career building.

My research was guided by three research questions. The first research question identified identify whether the students are interested in participating in EU project studies in the future. The second research question aimed to determine what project management skills expertise the students have. The third research question focused on  the importance of developing students’ project management competences.

The online questionnaire was chosen as the data collection method. The utilization of online survey provided me with a collection of rich data from the participants.The questionnaire, which included twelve questions, was sent to all the students of the Lapland University of Applied Sciences and the University of Lapland via an email link to Webropol survey. As a result I received 295 students’ responds to the questionnaire. 

The research revealed that more than 91% of the survey participants had not participated in EU project studies before and didn’t have any prior work experience of EU projects. Students consider the development of their project management competences very important. According to the results, project skills are very timely and necessary to obtain. They offer many opportunities to obtain information about different fields and the EU education system.

The students consider that EU project management skills would increase their career opportunities, would increase their chances of working in international settings, enhance their skills in logical thinking and result oriented approach, and increase their understanding of the European Union. The students liked the idea of implementing this kind of study unit to the study programme. The students reported that they were really looking for this kind of studies, but haven’t found any. 

According to the survey participants, the topic of EU project management should be more prominent and marketed in terms of what concrete things and benefits it might bring to the student. The participants of the survey expressed a wish and a desire to enrol on this type of studies in the future. They reported that this kind of study unit offers many opportunities to know more about their field of expertise and EU projects.

Inna Mishchenko

The writer of this blog text is studying in University of Lapland, Faculty of Education in the Master's Degree Programme of Education. The blog text is a maturity test for thesis called "Developing Students’ 21st Century Skills through the Project Studies".