Soft Skills and European Labour Market: Interviews with Finnish and Italian Managers

Recent reports have suggested that many employees in the labour market today lack essential soft skills. Yet, the specific relevance of these skills for particular job occupations is still to explore. We investigated perceptions of skill requirements and their development potential reflected against cultural impacts, using close interviews of 64 managers at firms in different fields of industries in Italy and Finland. Managers reported that, due to heightened competitive pressure, specific soft skills, particularly Work in team and flexibility to develop, are becoming increasingly important. The study indicates that the perceived significance of soft skills seems to vary according to the working environment and occupation. Furthermore, some soft skills seem to have a higher potential for development and thus suggested to be implemented in the university curricula. The paper concludes that a country characterized by working  environments conducive to the development of soft skills, must however promote research for the identification and relevance of the skills themselves

Detecting, Defining and Developing Soft Skills in Business and ICT Contexts

[ES] La motivación de este proyecto de investigación surgió de fuentes tanto personales como profesionales. En el campo de los negocios, así como en muchos otros campos, la definición de competencia profesional ha experimentado una importante evolución en los últimos 20 años. A medida que los entornos de trabajo se vuelven cada vez más digitales, pero también basados en equipos y redes, el papel de las habilidades individuales crece. Los empleadores de las empresas y las organizaciones de TIC buscan "habilidades técnicas", pero cada vez más buscan graduados capaces de administrarse por sí mismos, trabajar en equipos y redes y resolver problemas. La necesidad de estas "habilidades blandas" ha sido expresada por parte de organizaciones y empleadores, y se cree que su función crecerá adicionalmente en el futuro. Sin embargo, hay muchas razones por las que las instituciones educativas han tenido dificultades para captar este desafío. Como resultado, se informa que el mercado laboral sufre de "brechas de habilidades", lo que causa problemas tanto a los empleadores como a los graduados, e indirectamente también a los educadores. Una de las principales razones de esto es que los educadores carecen de la conciencia de las habilidades necesarias en las organizaciones. Además, no están seguros de si se pueden promover las habilidades blandas y cómo se debe llevar a cabo. En esta investigación, aclaro la "brecha de habilidades" y las posibles soluciones para reducirla. Empiezo por definir el carácter y el rol de Soft Skills. Posteriormente, inspecciono el proceso de adquisición de habilidades desde el aspecto de las partes mencionadas, llamadas "partes interesadas". Mi objetivo es crear un método que pueda considerar las Soft Skills de forma sistemática, con respecto a su rol para los diferentes stakeholders. Para lograrlo, se compone un marco de las Soft Skills esenciales, viable para Universidades y Organizaciones. A continuación, se presenta un modelo tridimensional del proceso de adquisición de Soft Skills. Luego se sugiere el indicador Method Soft Skills Status (3Si), operacionalizando los elementos del modelo en tres dimensiones estadísticas, "Significación", "Capacidad de aprendizaje" y "Nivel". Posteriormente se experimenta el Método propuesto mediante el lanzamiento de una encuesta a 381 profesionales de las TIC y empresas en cuatro países europeos. En la sección Resultados, se presentan y discuten los resultados de la encuesta. A continuación, se aplican los resultados para probar el Método, lo que permite una clasificación en ocho clases de Soft Skills. Estas clases proporcionan descripciones específicas para cada una de las Soft Skills, aplicables a los educadores y formadores que trabajan en Soft Skills. Los resultados afirman la hipótesis planteada a la investigación.[CA] La motivació d'aquest projecte d'investigació va sorgir de fonts tant personals com professionals. En el camp dels negocis, així com en molts altres camps, la definició de competència professional ha experimentat una important evolució en els últims 20 anys. A mesura que els entorns de treball es tornen cada vegada més digitals, però també basats en equips i xarxes, el paper de les habilitats individuals creix. Els ocupadors de les empreses i les organitzacions de TIC busquen "habilitats tècniques", però cada vegada més busquen graduats capaços d'administrar-se per si mateixos, treballar en equips i xarxes i resoldre problemes. La necessitat d'aquestes habilitats transversals ha sigut expressada per part d'organitzacions i ocupadors, i es creu que la seua funció creixerà addicionalment en el futur. No obstant això, hi ha moltes raons per les quals les institucions educatives han tingut dificultats per a captar aquest desafiament. Com a resultat, s'informa que el mercat laboral pateix de "bretxes d'habilitats", la qual cosa causa problemes tant als ocupadors com als graduats, i indirectament també als educadors. Una de les principals raons d'això és que els educadors manquen de la consciència de les habilitats necessàries en les organitzacions. A més, no estan segurs de si es poden promoure les habilitats blanes i com s'ha de dur a terme. En aquesta investigació, aclarisc la "bretxa d'habilitats" i les possibles solucions per a reduir-la. Comence per definir el caràcter i el rol de Soft Skills. Posteriorment, inspeccione el procés d'adquisició d'habilitats des de l'aspecte de les parts esmentades, anomenades "parts interessades". El meu objectiu és crear un mètode que puga considerar les Soft Skills de manera sistemàtica, respecte al seu rol per als diferents stakeholders. Per a aconseguir-ho, es compon un marc de les Soft Skills essencials, viable per a Universitats i Organitzacions. A continuació, es presenta un model tridimensional del procés d'adquisició de Soft Skills. Després se suggereix l'indicador "Method Soft Skills Status (3Si), transformant en operacions els elements del model en tres dimensions estadístiques, "Significació", "Capacitat d'aprenentatge" i "Nivell". Posteriorment s'experimenta el Mètode proposat mitjançant el llançament d'una enquesta a 381 professionals de les TIC i empreses en quatre països europeus. En la secció Resultats, es presenten i discuteixen els resultats de l'enquesta. A continuació, s'apliquen els resultats per a provar el Mètode, la qual cosa permet una classificació en huit classes de Soft Skills. Aquestes classes proporcionen descripcions específiques per a cadascuna de les Soft Skills, aplicables als educadors i formadors que treballen en Soft Skills. Els resultats afirmen la hipòtesi plantejada a la investigació.[EN] The motivation to this research project emerged from both personal and professional sources. In the field of business, as well as many other fields, the definition of professional competence has undergone a major evolution over the past 20 years. As working environments become increasingly digital, but also based on teams and networks, the role of individual skills grow. Employers in business and ICT organizations seek for technical 'hard skills', yet they increasingly look for graduates able to manage themselves, work in teams and networks and solve problems. The need for these 'Soft Skills' has been expressed from the part of Organizations and employers, and their role is believed to grow additionally in the future. However, there are many reasons why educational institutions have found it difficult to capture this challenge. As a result, the labour market is reported to suffer from 'skills gaps', which cause problems for the employers as well as the graduates, and indirectly also to the educators. A main reason for this is that educators lack the awareness of the skills needed in Organizations. In addition, they feel unsure about whether Soft Skills can be promoted, and how this should be conducted. In this research, I elucidate the 'skills gap' and possible solutions to reduce it. I start by defining the character and role of Soft Skills. Subsequently, I inspect the skills acquisition process from the aspect of the mentioned parts, called 'stakeholders'. My objective is to create a method that can consider Soft Skills in a systematic way, in respect to their role for the different stakeholders. To achieve this, a framework of the essential Soft Skills, viable for HEIs and Organizations is composed. Next, a three-dimensional model of the Soft Skills acquisition process is presented. The Method Soft Skills Status indicator (3Si) is then suggested, by operationalizing the elements of the model into three statistical dimensions, 'Significance', 'Learnability' and 'Level'. The proposed Method is subsequently experimented, by launching a survey to 381 business and ICT professionals in four European countries. In the Results section, the outcomes of the survey are presented and discussed. Next, the results are applied to test the Method, which allows a classification in eight classes of Soft Skills. These classes provide specific descriptions for each of the Soft Skills, applicable for educators and trainers working on Soft Skills. The results affirm the hypothesis set to the research.Schleutker, KEJ. (2021). Detecting, Defining and Developing Soft Skills in Business and ICT Contexts [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/179407TESI

FinnGen provides genetic insights from a well-phenotyped isolated population.

Population isolates such as those in Finland benefit genetic research because deleterious alleles are often concentrated on a small number of low-frequency variants (0.1% ≤ minor allele frequency < 5%). These variants survived the founding bottleneck rather than being distributed over a large number of ultrarare variants. Although this effect is well established in Mendelian genetics, its value in common disease genetics is less explored1,2. FinnGen aims to study the genome and national health register data of 500,000 Finnish individuals. Given the relatively high median age of participants (63 years) and the substantial fraction of hospital-based recruitment, FinnGen is enriched for disease end points. Here we analyse data from 224,737 participants from FinnGen and study 15 diseases that have previously been investigated in large genome-wide association studies (GWASs). We also include meta-analyses of biobank data from Estonia and the United Kingdom. We identified 30 new associations, primarily low-frequency variants, enriched in the Finnish population. A GWAS of 1,932 diseases also identified 2,733 genome-wide significant associations (893 phenome-wide significant (PWS), P < 2.6 × 10-11) at 2,496 (771 PWS) independent loci with 807 (247 PWS) end points. Among these, fine-mapping implicated 148 (73 PWS) coding variants associated with 83 (42 PWS) end points. Moreover, 91 (47 PWS) had an allele frequency of <5% in non-Finnish European individuals, of which 62 (32 PWS) were enriched by more than twofold in Finland. These findings demonstrate the power of bottlenecked populations to find entry points into the biology of common diseases through low-frequency, high impact variants

Sleep apnoea is a risk factor for severe COVID-19

Background Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is associated with higher body mass index (BMI), diabetes, older age and male gender, which are all risk factors for severe COVID-19.We aimed to study if OSA is an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection or for severe COVID-19.Methods OSA diagnosis and COVID-19 infection were extracted from the hospital discharge, causes of death and infectious diseases registries in individuals who participated in the FinnGen study (n=260 405). Severe COVID-19 was defined as COVID-19 requiring hospitalisation. Multivariate logistic regression model was used to examine association. Comorbidities for either COVID-19 or OSA were selected as covariates. We performed a meta-analysis with previous studies.Results We identified 445 individuals with COVID-19, and 38 (8.5%) of them with OSA of whom 19 out of 91 (20.9%) were hospitalised. OSA associated with COVID-19 hospitalisation independent from age, sex, BMI and comorbidities (p-unadjusted=5.13×10−5, OR-adjusted=2.93 (95% CI 1.02 to 8.39), p-adjusted=0.045). OSA was not associated with the risk of contracting COVID-19 (p=0.25). A meta-analysis of OSA and severe COVID-19 showed association across 15 835 COVID-19 positive controls, and n=1294 patients with OSA with severe COVID-19 (OR=2.37 (95% 1.14 to 4.95), p=0.021).Conclusion Risk for contracting COVID-19 was the same for patients with OSA and those without OSA. In contrast, among COVID-19 positive patients, OSA was associated with higher risk for hospitalisation. Our findings are in line with earlier works and suggest OSA as an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19

Genetic architecture of human plasma lipidome and its link to cardiovascular disease

Abstract Understanding genetic architecture of plasma lipidome could provide better insights into lipid metabolism and its link to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Here, we perform genome-wide association analyses of 141 lipid species (n = 2,181 individuals), followed by phenome-wide scans with 25 CVD related phenotypes (n = 511,700 individuals). We identify 35 lipid-species-associated loci (P &lt;5 ×10−8), 10 of which associate with CVD risk including five new loci-COL5A1, GLTPD2, SPTLC3, MBOAT7 and GALNT16 (false discovery rate&lt;0.05). We identify loci for lipid species that are shown to predict CVD e.g., SPTLC3 for CER(d18:1/24:1). We show that lipoprotein lipase (LPL) may more efficiently hydrolyze medium length triacylglycerides (TAGs) than others. Polyunsaturated lipids have highest heritability and genetic correlations, suggesting considerable genetic regulation at fatty acids levels. We find low genetic correlations between traditional lipids and lipid species. Our results show that lipidomic profiles capture information beyond traditional lipids and identify genetic variants modifying lipid levels and risk of CVD

Evidence of a causal effect of genetic tendency to gain muscle mass on uterine leiomyomata

Uterine leiomyomata (UL) are the most common tumours of the female genital tract and the primary cause of surgical removal of the uterus. Genetic factors contribute to UL susceptibility. To add understanding to the heritable genetic risk factors, we conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of UL in up to 426,558 European women from FinnGen and a previous UL meta-GWAS. In addition to the 50 known UL loci, we identify 22 loci that have not been associated with UL in prior studies. UL-associated loci harbour genes enriched for development, growth, and cellular senescence. Of particular interest are the smooth muscle cell differentiation and proliferation-regulating genes functioning on the myocardin-cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 1A pathway. Our results further suggest that genetic predisposition to increased fat-free mass may be causally related to higher UL risk, underscoring the involvement of altered muscle tissue biology in UL pathophysiology. Overall, our findings add to the understanding of the genetic pathways underlying UL, which may aid in developing novel therapeutics.Peer reviewe