Acquiring Leadership Skills through Extracurricular Activities in the Academic Environment: The Case of the Faculty of Administration and Business, University of Bucharest

The rapid pace of change in all economic sectors and the nature of many occupations in the 21st century increasingly require the acquisition of various knowledge and skills through both curricular and extracurricular activities within the higher education institutions. Hard skills and soft skills are attributes that should be incorporated as early as possible in the students' experience because they are relevant for their future career. Policy makers, academic staff, students and employers are among the most interested stakeholders in obtaining both valuable employment outcomes and civic competences of higher education graduates. The goal of the paper is to show that the extracurricular activities can bring a significant contribution to the creation and development of leadership skills of students in the academic environment and to the growth of their employability level. The methodology is based on the use of theoretical and empirical research methods. The findings of the paper illustrates that extracurricular activities are beneficial activities for the development of leadership skills among students in the academic environment because they help students to become not only open, pro-active and flexible people, but also effective leaders.