Margarita Carvalho discusses study on students’ perceptions of skills and the labour market

On 23 September, Margarita Carvalho, researcher at REMIT | Universidade Portucalense, took part in the RTP Antena 1 podcast “Duas de Prosa” to discuss a study involving 384 Economics and Management students at Universidade Portucalense and their perceptions of the skills required by the labour market.

The study examined three dimensions: the soft skills that students believe employers require, their assessment of their own skills, and how capable they feel of meeting employers’ expectations. The findings show a gap between the demands students attribute to employers and their assessment of their own abilities, particularly in professional skills, time management, stress and conflict management, planning, organisation and communication.

This gap was significantly smaller among students with professional experience. Margarita Carvalho highlighted the value of opportunities to put skills into practice, receive feedback and connect universities with companies. The findings reflect students’ perceptions and should not be taken as evidence that they lack these skills. Moreover, the results should not be generalised to the wider university student population, as they are specific to the sample studied.

The full episode and the research article are available at the following links:

Episode: https://www.rtp.pt/play/p15730/e955900/duas-de-prosa-podcast

Article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09504222261423286

Reference: Carvalho, M., Azevedo, M., & Pacheco, L. (2026). Students and employers perceptions differential on soft skills: An analysis for university students. Industry and Higher Education, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09504222261423286