What is BSST?
Companies expect a lot from recent graduates nowadays, not only hard skills but also soft skills. These hard skills were established during the classes we took at university, but what about the soft skills? Those are expected to be known, but are not covered during our studies. For this particular reason, BEST came up with a solution in 2017: the BEST Soft Skills Track (BSST). Building on six successful editions, we are back in 2024 for the 7th iteration of BSST!
What are Soft Skills?
Soft skills represent your personal attributes and are described as more general and non-technical. While hard skills are important for the execution of your job, soft skills can make it easier. Examples of these skills are communication, stress management and adaptability.
These skills can be used in any situation to make your life easier. They might mean the difference between you and the other candidate for the same job application, because companies value these skills more and more.
How is BSST structured?
This year, there are two different tracks to choose from. Each track will provide three workshops from three different companies who will each explain how they apply a certain soft skill within their company. Each workshop will thus focus on a different soft skill. After every workshop, there will be a informal networking reception where you can talk with the company representatives and reflect on what you learned with the other participants.
Upon following all workshops of your track, you will receive a certificate of participation signed by BEST Leuven, the companies in your track and the KU Leuven.
How do I sign up?
We aim for master students, but also welcome bachelors and PhD students. BSST is focused on students from various engineering and science faculties such as the Faculty of Engineering Science, Bioscience Engineering, Engineering Technology and Science.
Each track has a limit of 30 students. If you would like to follow either track, you can register starting from the 12th of December. Click the application button and you are registered after 10 simple questions. You will need to answer some study program and motivation questions. We want to know why you want to attend.
During the registration you will be able to give preference ratings for both tracks; that way we can give as many participants as possible their preferred track. You can register until the 1st of March at 23:59h. After that, we will contact every applicant to confirm if they were accepted or not. We expect you to submit a CV before the first evening to distribute to the participating companies.