The ESSENCE project intends to improve employability opportunities for HE students by stimulating soft skills development. Project objective is to maximize their engagement in the labor market through offering professional development paths that go beyond formal HE trainings. In order to meet the expectations of entrepreneurs and recruiters connected with the most desirable soft skills, the courses will be based on the demand-driven employers’ perspective. According to a ground-breaking research published by World Economic Forum around 2016; in the era of digital automation and AI, career success factors are facing times of significant changes especially in industry sectors at high technological coefficient (but not exclusively!). From 2020, at the very edge of the forth industrial revolution, strategic competitiveness relies more and more on intellectual capital assets – hence the needs to cultivate new managerial talents that are strongly empowered not only on technical knowledge but mostly on soft and intangible capabilities. ESSENCE aims to nurture a complete set of new soft skills on HE students and fresh graduates to complete, enhance and enrich their education and employability competitiveness beside the formal University training. During the project, partners will develop trainings, courses, educational modules and content that is in line with the CEDEFOP guidelines for Learning Outcome and fully aligned with the EQF from levels 3 to 5. In addition, the project will develop operational tools (i.e. self-assessment means) that systematically engage multiple organisational studies field and functions - communication, people management, HR, etc.ESSENCE brings together an extensive sample of experiences, knowledge and practices represented by each partner involved. Partners’ unique backgrounds mean an exceptional opportunity to leverage on a system of values grounded on diversity, heterogeneity and variegation. The project will be implemented by 8 partners from Poland, Croatia, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Bulgaria and Spain representing different backgrounds (business/ICT field, HE Institutions and social partners/NGO) over a period of 24 months.Project aims to reach its major target groups, which include HE students and recent graduates, HE teachers, HE schools/institutions, business trainers/mentors, entrepreneurs and SMEs. Among the project results, a few can be distinguished as the major ones:1) An online interactive platform (OER Platform) at the service of each target group addressed by the ESSENCE project (HE students, business consultants, entrepreneurship facilitators, HR specialists, and so on): the platform will be fully available to all interested parties even after the formal conclusion of the project in order to better exploit and valorise ESSENCE planned results.2) A vast catalogue of training tools to support HE students on soft skills for employability.3) An online business glossary to be used as a concepts-map as well as a reference to orientate oneself through the universe of soft skills models and studies. 4) Custom-made training courses related to self-empowerment and career development solutions.In order to reach the project’s goals, the development of four innovative and transferrable Intellectual Outputs is foreseen:IO1 - Development and Maintenance of Open Educational Resource Platform,IO2 - Identification and Mapping of Soft Skills for Enhanced Employability,IO3 - Development of Toolkit and Training Content + Conduction of Training,IO4 - Soft Skills Manifesto for Universities + Operational Guidelines.The project management and methodology will be tailor-made, involving development of personalized project management, quality assurance and dissemination plans, monitoring/evaluation tools. Thanks to the presence of partners with a high level of experience and multiplication potential, the project will benefit from increased visibility and impact at national and European level. To widen the impact of the project, a number of 7 multiplier events, including national and international participants is foreseen.The XXI century is characterized by a high level of volatility when it comes to the labor market. At a time when new professions and positions in companies are created more frequently, employers are paying more and more attention to the unique features of each candidate willing to work in their enterprise.Through its activities and outputs, ESSENCE proposes an innovative approach to the development of factors influencing employability and professional performance of young workforce - soft skills.