Higher education as a driver for sustainable transformation and leadership

Abstract

Higher Education plays an important role in laying the foundations for the development of competencies for sustainable leadership and entrepreneurship, capabilities that go outside disciplinal knowledge and include skills, knowledge, and attitudes regarding a holistic and approach oriented to sustainability. By preparing their students for the labour market, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are proactively responding to the wide range of challenges that the dynamic and uncertain environment of the 21st-century presents. The literature review is extensive about the expected competencies for the future, all indicating that they are critical success factors for individuals to ensure and sustain their career progression. Many of today's jobs and many more soon will require specific skills such as (i) technological knowledge, problem-solving and critical thinking; (ii) persistence, collaboration, cooperation, and empathy; (iii) communication, creativity, innovation, decision making, analytical skills, and leadership. These skills are key competencies to the progression of scanning 4.0. and work in Industry 4.0. The education system will necessarily have to move from a curriculum and evaluation-centered model to a pedagogical system that stimulates critical, reflective, creative, and adaptive thinking and reinforces cognitive and computational skills. The process of pedagogical innovation becomes not only revolutionary but above all crucial for a sustainable future. Based on personal characteristics (attitudes and personality) as well as leadership style, this study aims to achieve a better understanding of the relationships between these factors. Using a quantitative approach, a questionnaire was carried out with third-year students of the Business Management degree course of the Management School of the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave to assess their perceptions regarding acquired competencies during the course. The results point to a relationship between pedagogical innovation and soft skills development, with particular emphasis on problem-solving skills, critical thinking, collaboration, and cooperation. The data were also analysed and discussed according to the possible impact of the leader's behaviour and the performance of the HEI where he or she is inserted.