efforts for the labour market - repositorio-aberto.up.pt

MASTER MANAGEMENT

University students’ perception and

efforts for the labour market

Maria Batalha Reis Vieira da Costa

M 2020

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION AND EFFORTS FOR

THE LABOUR MARKET

Maria Batalha Reis Vieira da Costa

Dissertation

Master in Management

Supervised by:

Maria Helena Gonçalves Martins

Maria Teresa Campos Proença

2020

i

Bibliographic Note

Maria Batalha Reis Vieira da Costa, born on November 29th of 1996, started her academic

path at ISCAL (Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração de Lisboa) through

the bachelor in Entrepreneurial Finances in 2014.

After finishing the bachelor, in 2017, Maria decided to enter the labour market on an

internship for one year. At the end of the internship, in 2018, Maria moved to Oporto

and enrolled on the Master in Management at Faculty of Economics of the University of

Porto (FEP). In the second year of the master, Maria started an internship in Oporto but

returned to Lisbon in February 2020.

The present study was accepted and will be presented as a poster on the 17th International

Conference on Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management & Organizational Learning,

15 - 16 October, 2020, University of Toronto, Canada.

ii

Acknowledgments

To my Supervisor, Prof Maria Helena Gonçalves Martins who gave me the incentive to

keep searching and writing. For all the help, meetings and time taken to discuss ideas.

Thank you for all comprehension and dedication, which lead to this work that I am very

proud of.

To my Co-supervisor, Prof Maria Teresa Campos Proença, which was always available to

help and for all support.

Thank you to my parents, my sister and my brothers and family for accompanying me on

this journey, for the motivation, support and help.

To all friendships of Oporto, especially Constança, Lucas and Brás and to my homie

Margarida. Thank you for turning this experience a memorable one.

To my dear friends Carol, Fi, Mafs, Marta, Rita, Tixa and Diogo for the tolerance of

having dinners postponed and game nights cancelled. Thank you, for the calls and

motivation talks. You are the best.

iii

Abstract

The following dissertation intends to compare university students’ perceptions with

managers’ opinions on the need for soft skills in management professions. Furthermore,

the present study concerns the curricular and extracurricular development of Soft Skills

in Higher Education Institutions (HEI), aiming at bringing an updated look on how HEIs

are preparing students for the labour market, and whether or not these competencies

match what practitioners consider to be most important.

Data was collected among graduate students enrolled at business university level courses

(N = 78) and Portuguese managers (N=112). Both subsets were given the same set of

Competencies to evaluate, based on a questionnaire by Vieira and Marques (2014).

Responses were analysed separately and then comparatively, to create a better notion of

the matches and mismatches between students and practitioners.

Results suggest that students are aware of the competencies required in today’s

competitive world, however the preparation given by HEIs is still not enough in the

opinion of both groups. Therefore, students rely on extra curricula activities to develop

the Competencies they believe are necessary and not developed by HEIs.

The present dissertation focused on understanding whether expectations from business

students regarding the preparation of competencies developed by HEIs match the

expectations from managers, including how confident students are when entering the

labour market, and which extracurricular activities they enrol to better prepare for it.

Key-Words: Competencies; Soft Skills; Hard Skills; Graduate Employability; Managers

JEL-Codes: O32, M53

iv

Contents

Bibliographic Note........................................................................................................................ i

Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................ ii

Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ iii

Contents ....................................................................................................................................... iv

List of tables................................................................................................................................. vi

List of figures .............................................................................................................................. vii

1.Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1

2.Literature Review ...................................................................................................................... 3

2.1.Competency and Skills ...................................................................................................... 3

2.2.Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills .................................................................................................. 7

2.3.Soft Skills in Management ................................................................................................ 9

2.4.Soft Skills and Graduate Employability ....................................................................... 10

2.5.The role of Higher Education in developing Soft Skills ............................................ 13

2.6.Change in the paradigm of the Manager’s job: Challenges and opportunities ....... 16

2.7.Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 17

3.Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 18

3.1.Data Analysis .................................................................................................................... 20

3.2.Theoretical Model and Hypothesis ............................................................................... 21

3.3.Data Collection ................................................................................................................ 22

3.4.Instrument ........................................................................................................................ 22

3.5.Sample ............................................................................................................................... 27

4.Results....................................................................................................................................... 29

4.1.Correlational Analysis ..................................................................................................... 29

Q1. Which skills are considered by HEIs students as being the most important ones

to be successful in the labour market? ................................................................................ 32

Q2. Is there a relationship on what students and managers believe is necessary when

transitioning to the working life, post-University?............................................................ 34

Q3. What skills do students and managers feel that HEIs develop the most? ............. 37

Q4. How do students strive to develop skills outside HEIs? ......................................... 39

5.Discussion ................................................................................................................................ 43

6.Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 46

6.1.Limitations and future research ..................................................................................... 47

v

6.2.Theoretical contributions ............................................................................................... 47

6.3.Practical contributions .................................................................................................... 48

References ................................................................................................................................... 49

Appendixes ................................................................................................................................. 55

Appendix 1 – Questionnaire to managers.......................................................................... 55

Appendix 2 – Questionnaire to HEIs students ................................................................. 61

vi

List of tables

Table 1 - Definition of Competency according to literature review ……………. 3

Table 2 - Summary of previous similar studies regarding the perception of

students on important soft skills in the labour market ………………………… 19

Table 3 - Cronbach's alpha discriminated for each dimension and target group .. 26

Table 4 - Sample Demographics ………………………………………………. 27

Table 5 - Pearson’s Factor correlations for HEIs students …………………….. 30

Table 6 – Pearson’s Factor correlations for managers …………………………. 31

Table 7 – Means and Standard Deviations regarding the opinion of HEIs

students on the importance of each dimension on the labour market …………. 32

Table 8 – Means and Standard Deviations ordered by importance of each skill

in the opinion of HEIs students ………………………………………………. 33

Table 9 - Means and Standard Deviations regarding the opinion of managers on

the importance of each dimension on the labour market ……………………… 34

Table 10 - Means and Standard Deviations regarding the opinion of managers

on the importance of each skill on the labour market …………………………. 35

Table 11 - Average classification, Standard Deviations and group differences for

the importance of each dimension on the labour market ……………………… 36

Table 12 - Average classification, Standard Deviations and group differences for

the importance of each skill on the labour market …………………………….. 36

Table 13 - Average classification, Standard Deviations and group differences on

the preparation given by HEIs on each dimension ……………………………. 38

Table 14 - Average classification, Standard Deviations and group differences on

the preparation given by HEIs on each skill …………………………………... 38

Table 15 - Answers of students when confronted with the sentence: “I need to

look for alternatives to develop certain skills because, in my opinion, they are

essential in the labour market but HEIs do not develop them.” ………………. 40

Table 16 - Average classification and Standard Deviations regarding the

dimensions students look for developing outside HEIs ……………………….. 40

Table 17 - Average classification and Standard Deviations of the skills students

look for developing outside HEIs …………………………………………….. 41

Table 18 - Extra Curricula activities students enrol to develop skills that they

believe HEIs do not develop ………………………………………………….. 42

Table 19 - Answers of students when asked their level of confidence on

entering the labour market in the first 6 months after ending their study cycle ... 42

vii

List of figures

Figure 1 - AFC output regarding the TPS_SE instrument applied to the

present study ………………………………………………………………. 24

1

1. Introduction

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read but those who

cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”. (Toffler, 1970)

Since the beginning of the 21st century, organisations have been going through rapid

changes due to developments in information systems, which are forcing companies to

develop new management systems. These developments affect not only the companies

themselves but also socioeconomics, politics, information technology and Managerial

landscapes as well (Jaatinen, 2002).

Human Resource Management has gained new protagonism, since employers are

consensually seen as having a critical role on the organizational knowledge, which is key

for the competitive advantages of companies (Monavvarian, 2010).

Choosing “the right person for the job”, as well as keeping a motivated workforce by

offering fair remuneration, implementing promotion systems and making decisions based

on up-to-date information, is key (Robert Mitchell, Shepherd, & Sharfman, 2011).

With the change of landscape regarding companies’ requirements for employees, young

people entering the labour market are considered the most affected group, given the fact

that they no longer rely solely on their higher education qualification, but on their ability

to be flexible and rapidly adapt to circumstances, key for competitive advantage

(Tomlinson, 2012a). Still, employers keep reporting a shortage of soft skills as is the case

of spoken communication and work ethic (Mourshed, Patel, & Suder, 2014).

In the last decade, graduates’ employability has been a matter of increasing concern and

discussion amongst scholars (Oria, 2012), due to the high rate of graduate unemployment

registered in Europe, the Bologna Process and the New Europe 2020 Strategy (Pereira,

2019). Related to this matter, one of the most discussed topics is the quality of students

and their lack of Soft Skills required to increase their individual employability (Clarke,

2017; Crossman & Clarke, 2010).

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role and have a social responsibility

regarding the preparation of graduates with the skills and abilities required to be

considered by the labour market (Harvey, 2000; Sin & Neave, 2016). However, employers

emphasise that graduates are not able to transfer the acquired skills to real-life situations

(Shuayto, 2013), arguing that HEIs are still teaching academically oriented pedagogy

2

instead of applied learning and functional skills (Sin & Neave, 2016; Tomlinson, 2012b,

p. 412) or in Cross’ (2010, p. 7) - “(…) Universities still educate tomorrow’s Managers

with yesterday’s tools (…)”. In a study of 4300 people from eight different European

Countries and ages between 15 and 29 years old, Mourshed and colleagues (2014), found

that only 42% believed that by graduating their employment opportunities would have

increased.

Studies thus far are mainly focused on the perspectives of managers regarding the skills

students should have, but it is important to understand if students are aware of the

importance of competencies, and at what level they also put responsibility on themselves

to develop it instead of relying only on HEIs or employers.

Thus, the following dissertation intends to compare graduate students’ perceptions with

managers’ opinions on the need for certain competencies in management. Further, the

study also concerns the curricular and extracurricular development of soft skills in Higher

Education Institutions (HEIs), aiming at bringing an updated look on how HEIs are

preparing students for the labour market, and whether or not these Competencies match

what practitioners consider to be most important for the success of a Manager.

This work will start by reviewing the literature on competencies, exploring the differences

between hard and soft skills, what are the necessary soft skills in management according

to literature, soft skills to enhance graduate employability, the role of Higher Education

Institutions in developing soft skills, and the change in the paradigm of the manager’s job:

challenges and opportunities on today’s competitive world. The empirical section exposes

the what and whys of the chosen methodological approach, present results and discuss

findings. Finally, the conclusion, study contributions, limitations and clues for futures

research conclude this work.

3

2. Literature Review

In this chapter, key concepts will be introduced and discussed through a detailed literature

review. We will start by defining competency and Skill, followed by the difference between

hard and soft skills. A discussion on the role of soft skills for managers and employability

will ensue, as well as a reflection on the role of HEIs concerning the development of soft

skills in graduate students. Finally, the future of managers’ work is analysed. This section

will close with a critical analysis on the literature review.

2.1. Competency and Skills

The term Competency, although being very popular among researchers and practitioners,

arises some disagreements on its meaning (Sliter, 2015). In Table 1, it is possible to

synthetize different definitions given by different authors when defining the term

Competency.

Table 1 - Definition of Competency according to literature review

Definition Author(s)

Competency Critical differentiator of performance McClelland (1973)

Competency Individual’s intrinsic attribute that

possibly predicts the behaviour and

performance in the workplace

Spencer and Spencer (1993)

Competency The way that the individual’s

attributes, including knowledge,

skills and attitudes are drawn when

performing a task in specific work

context in which results the overall

job performance

Birkett (1993)

Competency The capability of the individual

including knowledge, skills and

Stephenson (1998)

4

personal attributes to effectively deal

with the tasks

Competency Capacity to mobilize diverse

cognitive resources to meet a certain

situation

Perrenored (2002)

Competency Set of skills, knowledge, abilities and

other characteristics that are needed

to effectively perform a job

Jackson and Schuler (2003)

Competency The ability to meet complex

demands by drawing on and

mobilising psychosocial resources

(including skills and attitudes) in a

particular context.

OECD (2005)

Birkett (1993) complements his definition by arguing that is the contextual task

performance, combined with the individual attributes, that constitute the individual’s

success.

Stephenson (1998), sustains that, whilst competency delivers the present based on the

past, capability includes competence but looks forward, to the future.

Another opinion supported by Rudman (1995), is that capability is a precursor to

competency, which means that individuals do not become fully competent in a task until

they have experience doing it. However, the individual may have the capability to perform

it given their knowledge and skill.

The achievement of a certain competency is reflected on a successful action however, its

development is likely to be acquired before executing that action, gradually in different

environments and contexts (Adomssent et al., 2007).

The term competency serves as an umbrella including skills, behaviours and knowledge.

The concept is used as well as a wide description of the expectations that companies and

communities have from individuals (Cinque, Perozzi, Bardill Moscaritolo, & Miano,

2017).

The definition of the word skill can be problematic, given the absence of a common

terminology and the meanings given to words like “skill” or “skilled” (Dench, 1997).

Historically, skill is associated with being skilled after a long period of training (Dench,

Source: Author own elaboration

5

1997). According to European Commission’s encyclopaedia1, skill is defined as the ability

to apply knowledge and use know-how to complete tasks and solve problems. For Cinque

et al. (2017) the concept of skills is specific to a learned activity that takes part on a broader

context.

Finegold and Notabartolo (2010) support that, nowadays, on an economy that requires

flexibility from employees, there is no difference between the term competency and skill

as the concept of skill has suffered changes from knowledge and skills for a certain job or

occupation, to also include general and personal capacities and attitudes vital for current

labour work (Chappell, Hawke, Solomon, & Rhodes, 2003).

For the purpose of the present study, from this point forward, competency and skill, will

be used interchangeably, and the definition followed is from Stephenson (1998) for

comprising common aspects of other definitions including skills, knowledge and personal

attributes.

Given the numerous authors studying this matter, a lot of definitions arise and there is no

consensus justified by philosophical and ideological matters (Sant’Anna, Oliveira, &

Diniz, 2013).

Markus, Thomas, and Allpress (2005), were able to split definitions into three major

lines: Educational Approach, Psychological Approach and Business Approach.

The first line of thought emphasises an Educational Approach related with the

development of skills required for a certain role, and assessed following some criteria,

usually a standard behaviour.

The second line of thought, named Psychological Approach, was firstly defended by

McClelland (1973) when supporting that personal competencies were motives and

personality traits, which lead to a better prediction of success than aptitude tests, and

defended that factors and inputs related with one’s individual success were passible of

identification and, consequently, teachable.

Around 1980, the third line of thought arose when companies started to change, by giving

a different perspective to the concept related to organisational competencies focused on

their competitive advantage (Markus et al., 2005). The concepts core competencies,

related to collective learning on organizations, and capabilities emerged according to

1 https://ec.europa.eu/esco/portal/escopedia/Skill

https://ec.europa.eu/esco/portal/escopedia/Skill

6

Hamel, Doz, and Prahalad (1989) and gained a high level of importance on the study of

competencies (Shippmann et al., 2000).

Continuing the study of the definition of competency, the consensus is difficult to come

up, because of the adoption of the term under different areas of knowledge (Sant’Anna

et al., 2013).

Katz (1955) developed this field of study, splitting competencies on a set of three different

types: technical skills, when related to a specific field of work, human skills, which deals

with interpersonal issues, and conceptual skills referring to the ability of seeing the

organization as a whole, including analytic and integrative abilities.

In the opinion of Bunk (1994), professional competencies are divided into four different

groups, namely technical, methodological, participative and personal.

However, in the field of higher education, competencies are usually divided in generic and

field specific (Becker & Capital, 1964). Generic Competencies, or transferable skills

(Tuning Project, 2014), are those which are common to all degree courses, that provide a

strong basis for further learning, including not only learning abilities but also problem-

solving and analytical competencies. On the contrary, specific competencies, include

vocational and field specific ones (Heijke, Meng, & Ris, 2003).

Birkett (1993) defends that individual attributes can be separated in cognitive skills and

behavioural skills. Cognitive skills include all attributes responsible for the individual’s job

success, such as technical knowledge, skills and abilities. On the other hand, behavioural

skills correspond to the individual’s personality and include principles, values and motives,

which includes personal skills and organizational skills.

In 2005, another addition was developed by the Tuning Project when divided generic

competencies in: 1) instrumental, which includes cognitive abilities, methodological,

technological and linguistic abilities; 2) interpersonal, which aggregates individual abilities

and 3) systemic, referring to abilities and skills which concern entire systems, and evolves

prior acknowledgment of instrumental and interpersonal skills (González & Wagenaar,

2005).

As it is possible to confirm, both researchers and practitioners have developed several

meanings related to their efforts to implement the competency approach to their work.

The term has been defined in different fields, from educational to management

(Hoffmann, 1999).

7

It is important to focus on which skills are needed in order to better adapt to uncertain

and complex trends, like globalisation, digitalisation and demographic change since they

impact on the way people work, relate, obtain information, purchase goods or spend their

free time (OECD, 2019). Once people develop the right skills for work and life, these

challenges will be turned into opportunities and will play an important role in shaping the

future. If, in turn, people are not developing the right skills, there is the inherent risk of

being left behind (OECD, 2019).

To be successful in the labour market, the individual relies on two kinds of skills namely,

hard and soft skills (Balcar, 2016). Both types of skills are complementary and substantially

increase productivity of companies, reason why there has been an increase of jobs

requiring high levels of both (Weinberger, 2014).

2.2. Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills

On today’s competitive labour market, new positions are arising together with new job

descriptions demanding new requirements and the need to develop qualifications and

additional skills (Tsirkas, Chytiri, & Bouranta, 2020). Therefore, people should develop a

set of up-to-date skills (Tsirkas et al., 2020). Hard skills are needed for an employer to

perform his job however, they are not enough for a successful career path (Tsirkas et al.,

2020). Soft skills complement hard skills giving the essential elasticity to develop and keep

updated in changing environments (Cimatti, 2016).

Even though academic qualifications are valued by employers, it is also expected students

to have developed soft skills in order to contribute to the growth of the organizations

(Yorke, 2006). The individual needs to move from memorizing information to abilities,

capacities and competencies (Tudor, 2013).

Hard skills are defined as technical, tangible and measurable competencies (Stewart, Wall,

& Marciniec, 2016) which is primarily cognitive and influenced by the Intelligence

Quotient of the individual (Rainsbury, Hodges, Burchell, & Lay, 2002), whilst soft skills

refer to the emotional-side of the individual (Succi & Canovi, 2019).

Hard skills describe obvious behaviours and skills and its output is visible and direct. The

assessment can be done by technical or practical tests (Sopa et al., 2020). On the other

side, soft skills measurement is impossible being more correct to say there is a probability

to act in a certain way or talk about a certain disposition (Cimatti, 2016).

8

Whilst hard skills are directly related to knowledge and can easily be taught and

measurable, the opposite happens with soft skills as these are related to attitudes, which

turns the development slower and harder to measure. Lastly, the achievement of hard

skills can be confirmed by a diploma, which does not happen with soft skills, since there

is no objective way to test its successful development (Balcar, 2016).

Nonetheless, it is considered to exist a synergy between soft skills and hard skills, since

both can be taught together (Cimatti, 2016).

Throughout history, soft skills have been known for different denominations such as

transversal skills or social skills, amongst others (Cimatti, 2016; Moore & Morton, 2017;

Succi & Wieandt, 2019). These types of skills are related to a wide range of interpersonal

and social qualities and competencies, transferable across economic sectors and industries

(Hurrell, 2016). Soft skills include personality traits, goals, motivations and preferences

valued in different domains such as job and school (Heckman & Kautz, 2012, p. 451). It

is a concept which is difficult to define given the forms it can assume, depending on the

contexts (Knight & Page, 2007) and capability of development throughout the individual’s

lifetime (Ciappei & Cinque, 2014).

These skills should start to be taught within family and primary school. Its development

is dependent of different actors, such as education providers, employers, schoolmates and

colleagues, which can help to develop such skills, being necessary a dialogue for true

understanding of the necessary tools and needs (Cimatti, 2016).

Soft skills are becoming evermore indispensable for a productive performance, causing a

bigger focus by business leaders regarding the development of these skills (Nealy, 2005)

because companies are focused on continuous hard work to succeed and compete in the

global market (Gore, 2013).

Soft skills can be subdivided into two categories: personal attributes and interpersonal

abilities. Attributes include optimism, common sense, responsibility, integrity, time

management and motivation, whilst interpersonal are related to abilities like to empathy,

leadership, communication, sociability (Idrus, Dahan, & Abdullah, 2014).

Cimatti (2016), proposes a distinction of soft skills in personal and social Skills. The first

correspond mainly to cognitive skills, including thinking skills like exercising critical

judgment, or knowledge as elaborating information. Other examples of personal skills are

the capacity and desire to continue studying or planning and achieving goals. Social skills

are related with the interaction with other people. Engelberg (2015), includes

9

communication, listening, negotiation networking, problem-solving, decision making and

assertiveness as the main social skills (as cited in Cimatti, 2016).

Studies support that Soft Skills are an important predictor of employability (D. Finch,

Nadeau, & O’Reilly, 2013) since these competencies tend to allow workers to more easily

adapt on the organizational culture and take initiative participating on the organization’s

success (Harvey, 2000).

Whilst hard skills are used as the decisive criteria for hiring candidates (European

Commission Directorate-General 5 & Affairs, 2011), soft skills serve as a tiebreaker

requirement when choosing between two candidates with similar background (Stewart et

al., 2016).

2.3. Soft Skills in Management

On ‘Education to employment: Getting Europe's youth into work’, study conducted by

McKinsey&Company in 2014 in eight different European countries, more than 5,300

young people, 2,600 employers, and 700 education providers were surveyed and over 100

programmes in 25 countries were examined. From this study, 27% of employers admitted

that they have left one vacancy open in 2013 due to not being able to find anyone with

the requested skills. One third agreed that the problem of lack of skills is affecting their

business in terms of cost, quality or time. Actually, on the countries where youth

unemployment is higher, employers reported the greatest problems regarding skills

shortage (Mourshed et al., 2014).

On the same study, the reason why young people do not get the skills requested for

employers was studied. One of the main reasons was the incapability of these three

stakeholders to communicate when it comes to understanding each other’s expectations

and needs. Around74% of institutions and academics believed that their students were

ready for labour market however, only 38% of students and 35% of employers agreed on

that. In the case of Portugal, only a third of employers admitted to communicate with

institutions (Mourshed et al., 2014).

On the employers’ side, companies can improve the cooperation with HEIs by informing

their needs, provide internships and support the job learning (Sin & Neave, 2016). On

companies, learning everyday should be a concern and a competitive and collaborative

environment should be created in order for them to be exposed to real-life and complex

situations and to learn from each other (Succi & Wieandt, 2019).

10

From the same study by McKinsey (2014), only 10% of young people were completely

satisfied with their first job post-university, due to their strong education and good

information received, as well as focus on building job skills.

2.4. Soft Skills and Graduate Employability

Graduate employability is directly related to the graduate’s potential to get a job, which is

different from employment that consists on the actual job acquisition (Yorke, 2006). A

successful transition from university to the labour market has a big importance to ensure

that employers have the option to employ graduates suitable for their needs, as well as to

reduce the new graduates overqualification in some jobs (D. J. Finch, Hamilton, Baldwin,

& Zehner, 2013).

Key competencies can be referred to as critical or important competencies (Rychen &

Salganik, 2003), with a certain value needed in multiple areas and by all individuals (Co-

operation & Development, 2005) 2. These skills have special significance but do not

replace the specific competencies from each field, which are necessary for notable actions

on explicit environments (Godemann, Barth, Rieckmann, & Stoltenberg, 2007).

There are three major conditions where key competencies bring value: measurable

benefits for economic and social purposes; appliance to multiple areas of life not only in

the labour market but also regarding private relationships and other examples. Lastly, key

competencies should be important for all individuals, who should aspire to promote and

retain (Co-operation & Development, 2005). Nevertheless, key competencies have

unequal commitment depending on the sector and on the groups or population (Oates,

2003).

According to D. J. Finch et al. (2013), there are five factors that influence graduate’s

employability, namely soft skills, problem solving skills, job specific skills, pre-graduate

experience and academic reputation. Soft Skills have gained some importance in the

labour market and are presumed to be useful in several environments (Chamorro‐

Premuzic, Arteche, Bremner, Greven, & Furnham, 2010). Problem solving skills are

considered to be core competencies to employability (Reid & Anderson, 2012). These

skills are important to different types of jobs and disciplines (Wellman, 2010). Regarding

2 DeSeCo - Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and conceptual foundations. A program by OECD aims to advance the theoretical underpinning of key Competencies through an international scientific approach together with ongoing OECD assessment programs. http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/definitionandselectionofCompetenciesdeseco.htm

http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/definitionandselectionofcompetenciesdeseco.htm

11

to job specific skills, it serves as an indicator to employers showing if the candidate has

successfully acquired the needed knowledge related to the job (Bhaerman & Spill, 1988).

The pre-graduate experience includes informal work experience related to the area of

studies such as summer internships or part-times (D. J. Finch et al., 2013). This extra

experience enables students to develop competencies experiencing real-life situations

(Gabris & Mitchell, 1989). Lastly, academic reputation is the level of esteem that a certain

stakeholder has over an organisation (Deephouse & Carter, 2005). This image held over

a specific school or category of schools may enhance employability of graduates who

studied there (Chevalier & Conlon, 2003).

Nevertheless, companies that have resources do not give the same importance to

academic background or past experience compared to companies who do not have the

equal capabilities, since the resources enable companies to provide specific training and

shape employees (Jones, Baldi, Phillips, & Waikar, 2017)

On a study organized in the United States of America, not only Fortune 5003 companies

but also companies not listed on that ranking, voted for the same top and bottom four

competencies valued on candidates. Both groups stand out positive attitude, respect for

others, trustworthy, honest and ethical as well as candidates who take initiative (Jones et

al., 2017). The least important factors were quantitative/statistical/math skills, high

grades, active in student professional organizations and, for last, knowledge of global or

international business (Jones et al., 2017). Despite being the least voted competencies,

recruiters still choose to go to university campuses, which perceives some advantage in

doing so (Jones et al., 2017). Perhaps because having a university diploma is, by itself, an

indicator of motivation, willingness to work and perseverance (Jones et al., 2017)

Although there seems to be no agreements regarding which skills a Manager should hold

in order to be competent when preforming his/her professional job, the National

Association of College and Educators (2018) refers that the attributes recruiters most look

for amongst candidates are problem-solving skills and teamwork abilities followed by

written communication skills, leadership, and a strong work ethic.

When studying which skills differentiate outstanding from average managers, three

clusters of competencies seem to stand out, namely: Cognitive competencies; Emotional

3 Ranking of incorporated and operating in US companies that file financial statement with a government agency by total revenues. Private companies that file a 10k or comparable financial statement with a government agency (https://fortune.com/franchise-list-page/fortune-500-methodology-2020/)

https://fortune.com/franchise-list-page/fortune-500-methodology-2020/

12

intelligence competencies and Social intelligence competencies (Spencer & Spencer,

1993).

In order to be a good corporate leader, it is important to be self-aware, self-regulated,

motivated and to have empathy and social skills. These characteristics are directly related

to emotional intelligence, which resulted from the belief that intelligence not only comes

from abstract and concrete ability but also social ability (Duckett, 2003). Having these

characteristics will lead to a better understanding of himself/herself, as well as the

colleagues emotions in order to move the team to accomplish the objectives (Goleman,

1998), resulting in a better response to the continuous changes in both the internal and

external environment (Hess et al., 2010).

There are certain competencies that, according to May (1999), all managers should possess

such as man-management competency, self-confidence, communication skill and ability

to work with managers from other departments. Additionally, depending on the business,

managers should need negotiating skills, leadership, and creative thinking, as well.

The definition of a manager is someone who is responsible for the organization or a unit

of the company (Mintzberg, 2009).

The profound changes in companies’ organization and changes in the management’s

language, are believed to be eliminating or downgrading the role of the manager which

usually is seen as having a distinctive or decisive role inside the organisation (Hales, 2001).

This idea is usually supported by the ones who are sceptical about the role of the manager

(Hales, 2001). Nevertheless, Mintzberg (2009) considers that even though companies

change, the job of the manager does not change. What differs is what the manager deals

with (Mintzberg, 2009).

Drucker (2003), supports that management has two views: it is a technology since it deals

with action and application and its results are proved in its tests; it has a humanity facet

since it deals with people’s growth and development as well as their values. The author

theorises management as “liberal art”, rather than science (Drucker, 2003) . The idea of

liberal is supported by “management deals with the fundamentals of knowledge, self-

knowledge, wisdom and leadership”, and art because it implies practice and application

(Drucker, 2003).

Mintzberg (2004), also believes that management is not a science nor a profession.

management is a practice since it is learned through experience and rooted in context

(Mintzberg, 2009).

13

It is difficult to come up with a standard list of the managerial activities for all management

jobs, given the wide range of activities that a manager can perform (Mumford, 1994).

There are still some doubts related to which activities are exclusively for managers

opposed to which managers may get involved, and to activities related to managing but

performed by non-managers or by everyone on a daily basis (Hales, 2001). Managers,

nowadays, lead teams, negotiate, inspire, and promote organizational learning. Such tasks,

obligate managers to judge, create and take risks (Hales, 2001).

2.5. The role of Higher Education in developing Soft Skills

The Bologna Process started in 1999 and stated employability as an ambitious and shared

goal, signalizing the changing dynamic between higher education and the labour market

(Tomlinson, 2012b). This way, graduate employability became a priority on Higher

Education Institutions, changing the main purpose of higher education where, before

Bologna Process, HEIs in EU countries were not uniformized influencing the low level

of competitiveness in the global economy (Sin & Neave, 2016; Van der Wende, 2000).

The Bologna Process strengthened the bond between theory and practice, research and

knowledge transfer, university and labour market, turning European degrees readable for

the rest of the world enhancing their attractiveness (Unit, 2006).

There are four major stakeholders regarding this matter: policymakers, education

providers, students and employers (Sin & Neave, 2016). However, it seems to exist a

mismatch between what graduates, employers and learning providers consider as being

the most important skills graduates should acquire throughout their studies (Mourshed et

al., 2014) as well as who is the responsible for the development of graduates’ competencies

(Hurrell, 2016).

In order for graduates to have an important role on the labour market, HEIs need to

adapt to the fast-changing necessities of the society by improving its means and

perception of employability (Griffiths, Inman, Rojas, & Williams, 2018). However,

educators face a challenge when teaching soft skills in the courses, since it may sacrifice

the content of lectures (Anthony, 2014) and its difficulty to materialize it (Robles, 2012).

There is also the risk for students to undervalue it since they will not be evaluated

(Anthony & Garner, 2016).

HEIs have been criticized and suffered pressure on to the lack of preparation of students

concerning the current labour market needs, and have responded by developing skill-

14

based learning outcomes on the degree programs (Clarke, 2017; Kalfa & Taksa, 2015).

Nonetheless, students also play an important role on the development of soft skills, and

should be aware of the competencies developed as well as construct active strategies and

actions to improve them (Cimatti, 2016).

Universities are seen as the educators of critical and creative thinkers that contribute and

impact the world (Christersson et al., 2019). Graduates should consider universities as an

option for continuous education and should aim for lifelong education (Hunt, 2011).

Traditional approaches like lectures are not interactive, since students get the answers

rather than having to find them for themselves (Dalsgaard & Godsk, 2007). Traditional

classes do not focus on the student as an individual, since everyone is presented with the

same lectures (Dalsgaard & Godsk, 2007). Learning in the present century, needs to be

an active and ongoing process (Christersson et al., 2019).

Learning consists on the ability to use resources aiming to find, evaluate and apply

information instead of committing a set of facts to memory. Nevertheless, since

curriculums have so much content, teachers share their knowledge and students turn

those facts to memory, which has consequences such as the nondevelopment of life long

skills, like critical thinking, problem solving and communication (Lujan & DiCarlo, 2006).

Active learning works on multiple disciplines, genders and contexts. It is transformational

and long term (Christersson et al., 2019). This process carries benefits for students

through curiosity-driven methods, research-based or problem based learning and distinct

assessment practices. Active learning reinforces the learner’s critical thinking skills

(Christersson et al., 2019).

Techniques like scenario-based learning, role-play or simulation will open new potentials

of learning (Christersson et al., 2019).

Other measures can be taken to tackle this gap. HEIs should offer high quality

programmes (BUSINESSEUROPE, 2007) and can develop soft skills by formal or

informal activities (Succi & Wieandt, 2019). Formal activities include activities in the

classroom through ECTS4, while informal activities can be workshops, labs, projects,

company visits (Succi & Wieandt, 2019). By offering extra-curricular activities such as

volunteering, culture or arts, sports and so on, soft skills can be developed as well

(McAleese et al., 2013, p. 36).

4 European Credit Transfer System

15

There is no consensus in the literature when it comes to the definition of formal, informal

and non-formal activities, as well as the boundaries between each other (Malcolm,

Hodkinson, & Colley, 2003). Actually, formal and informal learning should not be seen

as opposites but as two extremities of a continuum. After all, in most learning situations,

both formal and informal learning are present and interacting (Folkestad, 2006).

When discussing the role of academia in developing competencies, the focus mainly goes

to study programmes and courses (Godemann et al., 2007). In general, universities are

considered as formal educational institutions (Godemann et al., 2007), since formal

education constitutes the formal education system of the country. Formal education is

characterized by being institutionalised, intentional and planned by public institutions, and

includes vocational education, special needs education and a part of adult education

(ISCED, 2012). Usually, it occurs in student-teacher relationships or interaction with

effects on learning in educational institutions, focused on full-time education for students

and providing continuous education (ISCED, 2012).

Nevertheless, universities provide the opportunity to students learn in informal

environments, by coordinating volunteering programs in student groups (Godemann et

al., 2007).

Informal learning is nondidactic, inserted in a meaningful activity and depends on the

individuals interest, initiative or choice, instead of resulting from external demands and,

regarding how it is evaluated, informal learning does not involve other assessments out

of the activity (Rogoff, Callanan, Gutiérrez, & Erickson, 2016). When determining

educational attainment levels, qualifications acquired on informal learning are considered

less organised and structured (ISCED, 2012). It includes learning activities around family,

workplace or local community (ISCED, 2012). Still, this type of learning is very effective

and likely the most common amongst adults (Tudor, 2013).

Non-formal learning is placed outside the formal educational system, it is intentional and

the individual attending it does it for his own reasons (Tudor, 2013). It is organized for

learning (Tudor, 2013) and what distinguishes from the other education types, is that

serves as an alternative or complement of formal education (ISCED, 2012), working as a

valorisation of the learning experiences acquired in formal environments (Tudor, 2013) .

Non-formal education helps guaranteeing that everyone has access to education and leads

to qualifications, which are not recognized as formal ones by relevant national educational

16

authorities. It is usually short in duration and can be provided in workshops, seminars or

short courses and can be focused on life skills, work skills and social development.

2.6. Change in the paradigm of the Manager’s job: Challenges and

opportunities

On a study conducted by Hays (2020) regarding the future of the labour market in

Portugal, it was highlighted that the requirement for digital competencies is increasing its

importance in the labour market, which increases the need for soft skills that are

considerate to be decisive in the future when recruiting and on the development of an

organization. Companies will face new challenges when it comes to integrate digital and

soft skills (Hays, 2020).

In 2020, it is predicted that the most requested competency will be teamwork, reflecting

the global mindset of companies where the exchange of knowledge and ideas is highly

valued, while unifying the team with new generations that are beginning their journey in

the labour market (Hays, 2020). Technical competencies come second, followed by ethic

and values. The least valued ones are expected to be international experience, the

employees’ network and diplomacy (Hays, 2020).

In the next decade, artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics will disrupt businesses and

the way companies work (Udemy, 2019). AI is present in all departments of businesses

such as Marketing, which can apply AI data insights on customer behaviour to tailor sales

offers; HR teams can use AI to recruit, screen and interview candidates, or the Finance

department that applies AI and machine learning to reduce company costs.

Udemy, an online training platform, identifies ten skills that will be increasingly demanded

until 2022, including a growth mindset, creativity, focus mastery, innovation and

communication competencies, storytelling, cultural awareness, critical thinking, leadership

and emotional intelligence (Udemy, 2019).

The Hays report places a high focus on employers to be proactive, always looking for

continuous-knowledge, as well as being open to change (Hays, 2020), since companies are

starting to reskill employees for new roles (Udemy, 2019). Businesses are transforming

into data-driven companies by upskilling on tech skills (Udemy, 2019).

These global, social and economic trends are changing the way people conduct their

businesses as well as the skills required to be able to enter and add value in a team (Hays,

2020).

17

Therefore, students need to be open to change and ready to adapt to technologies like big

data and automation since it is expected that the way individuals work changes, together

with the emergence of sophisticated forms of technology (Low, Gao, & Ng, 2019). In

this rapidly changing environment, the ability to predict future employment trends and

needs regarding specific skills and knowledge to a better adaptation becomes critical (Low

et al., 2019). Therefore, the right mindset, proactivity and adaptive skills enable an easier

transition (Rampersad & Zivotic-Kukuloj, 2019). Educational programmes, however, do

not prepare graduates sufficiently on skills like entrepreneurship, creativity, influencing

others and conflict resolution considered important for automation and artificial

intelligence (Rampersad & Zivotic-Kukuloj, 2019).

2.7. Conclusion

Within the literature review, the concept of Competency was explained however, it is

possible to understand that there is not a consensus. There is also difficulty on the

categorization of soft skills given its wide range and diversity. It is understandable that

companies are changing, but the future of the managerial activities is still uncertain, but

there is already a big focus on AI and data analytics.

Comparing the results of the similar studies with the aim of this dissertation, the result is

expected to add new knowledge regarding:

• The perspective that students have on which competencies are required in the

labour market compared with the managers’ opinion;

• What are the skills developed in universities;

• Which different skills and expertise are being developed by students outside of

class;

• Students’ perception on readiness for the labour market compared to the

Managers’ opinion

Similar studies focus mainly on comparing perspectives between students, employers and

HEIs as well as what employers and HEI can do to develop but is missing if students

develop it outside university. The responsibility of HEIs and employers was studied but

the side of the student is missing.

18

3. Methodology

In order to understand how university students are preparing themselves for the labour

market, it is important to understand which are the skills they think are necessary in

management, and to compare them with the perception of employers, which is the

starting point of the present study. Secondly, it will be understood what HEIs are focusing

on developing in the opinion of both students and managers based on their experience

working with graduates. Finally, the opinion of students regarding the need to resort to

other means in order to develop or consolidate skills will be analysed.

Having in consideration the methods used in gathering information for similar studies

(Table 2), in the present research it was applied a questionnaire to both target groups was

applied as the majority of the literature used questionnaire as one of the methods to collect

information.

Quantitative research is understood to be research which explains phenomena based on

numerical data that is analysed by mathematical based methods, which means that is

testing a theory through numbers which are then analysed in statistical terms (Gay, Mills,

& Airasian, 1996), whereas qualitative research means the collection of extensive on

different variables for a certain period of time, with the aim of getting results that are not

possible to get with other approaches (Gay et al., 1996).

19

Table 2 - Summary of previous similar studies regarding the perception of students on important soft skills in the labour market


Approaches Method Results Author(s)

Graduates’ skills and

employability: the view of

students from different

European Countries

Questionnaire applied to

students from five different

European countries

Students recognize as the

most important skills:

communication, thinking

and interpersonal skills but,

on the other hand, personal,

interpersonal and

entrepreneurial skills are

what is lacking on students

Elisabeth T. Pereira,

Madalena Vilas-Boas, Cátia

C. Rebelo (2019)

Soft skills to enhance

graduate employability:

Comparing students and

employers’ perceptions

Surveys, focus groups and

interviews on students or

recent graduates with no

more than two years of

experience from Germany

and Italy as well as HR

Managers

It was recognized by both

students and managers that

on the last five to ten years,

there has been an increased

emphasis on soft skills.

There was identified lack of

communication of HEI to

students regarding the

importance of soft skills.

Chiara Succi, Magali Canovi

(2019)

Preparados para

trabalhar? [Ready to

work?]

Separate focus groups with

graduates and employers

and quantitative methods by

sending questionnaires to

both target groups

It was recognized the

importance of participating

in activities outside HEI in

order to prepare for the

labour market and the

satisfaction students have

regarding their bachelor.

Managers evidence the need

to develop some the

behavioural preparation.

Diana Aguiar Vieira and

Ana Paula Marques (2014)

Analysis of skill gap for

business graduates:

managerial perspective

from banking industry

Questionnaire-based survey

with bank officers which

worked with recent business

students

The study concluded that

employability skills of

graduates are lesser than

expected from managers.

Farhad Khurshid Abbasi,

Amjad Ali and Naila Bibi

(2018)

Executive Perceptions of

the Top 10 Soft Skills

needed in Today’s

Workplace

Executives were asked 10

top skills for new employers

to possess. From there, a list

of 26 Soft skills was

constructed and business

executives were asked to

rank them

Identification of the top 10

soft skills perceived as most

important for business

executives

(Robles, 2012)

20

3.1. Data Analysis

With the aim of answering to research questions, all answers from both questionnaires

were uploaded to Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and all statistics and

respective tests were performed and analysed from there.

Additionally, to perform the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (FCA), Amos Structural

Equation Modeling was used. Having in consideration that the instrument developed by

Vieira (TPS_SE) in 2004, regarding Transversal and Professional Skills Self Efficacy

which considered the competencies evaluated, was already developed and tested, we have

expectations regarding the number of factors, what are the variables that compose each

factor, and whether the factors are correlated or not (Thompson, 2004), gathering the

necessary conditions to make a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The results were

confronted to Marôco (2010) reference table and the result was satisfactory which enabled

to analyse results using TPS_SE instrument (Vieira, 2014).

Considering the division of competencies into three dimensions, the calculation of the

Cronbach’s internal alpha was computed to estimate the proportion of variance that is

consistent in the set of the scores tested (Brown, 2002). It was calculated for the contexts

where the Likert Scale was applied and more than one item assessed (Gliem & Gliem,

2003). Overall consistency rates were computed as well as the consistency of respective

dimensions (Table 3).

Correlations between variables were measured by the Pearson’s correlation test. As a

result, significant correlations for p values lower than 0,01 and lower than 0,05 were taken

into consideration. These correlations between dimensions were performed for both

groups individually, with the aim of understanding the direction and extent of the linear

relationship between each two dimensions (Nicol & Pexman, 1999).

Then, descriptive analysis was conducted for a proper study of the sample, as well as to

understand the answers given by both groups individually, about the list of 21

Competencies in the different contexts as well as factor examination.

After, T-tests were performed to the scales which were common to both target groups:

Importance of each skill for the success of a graduate in the labour market; and

Preparation of HEIs regarding each skill. Analysing the results of the T-test, it is was

possible to understand if the two samples differed significantly from each other (Nicol &

Pexman, 1999) on the factors that had significance differences in means between the

21

perspectives of managers and HEIs students. It was also applied to competencies

individually in order to complement the outcome given before.

Regarding the remaining scale that was not common to both groups on skills that HEIs

students develop outside HEIs, in order to analyse central tendencies (Nicol & Pexman,

1999), means and standard deviations were calculated and analysed.

3.2. Theoretical Model and Hypothesis

The present study intends to analyse if the perceptions of HEIs students regarding

market’s needs match the opinions of managers regarding the same subject. This way, it

will be possible to understand if students have a good grasp of what is needed to be

successful in the labour market, if they feel ready for it, as well as how they prepare to this

transition enrolling both formal and informal activities.

Having that in mind, the research questions of this dissertation are:

1. Are the competences that graduates think necessary to enter the labour market

the same that employers perceive as being necessary?

2. Do students believe that skills developed in university are enough or do they look

for informal activities?

Therefore, the study has four stages:

Q1: Which skills are considered by HEIs students as being the most important ones to

be successful in the labour market?

Q2: Is there a relationship on what students and managers believe is necessary when

transitioning to the working life, post-University?

Q3: What skills do students and managers feel that HEIs develop the most?

Q4: How do students strive to develop skills outside HEIs?

To compare these perceptions, two questionnaires were developed. One focused on

Undergraduates and the other on Managers. Throughout the questionnaire, the same list

of Competencies was presented. This list includes both Soft Skills and Hard Skills, to

include all types of Competencies and to understand which ones weigh the most.

22

3.3. Data Collection

Data was collected entirely online, between June 16th to July 20th, 2020. The strategy

applied in order to reach each target group was different.

For managers, the questionnaire was firstly sent to close family and friends and, secondly,

through e-mail based on a SABI5 data base. By the end, it was possible to gather 246

Managers answers to the inquiry however, 134 answers were incomplete, remaining 112

complete answers.

In order to reach to students, the tools used were different: First, different Portuguese

business universities were asked to share the questionnaire within the student community.

After, students’ associations were also reached but with no success as summer vacations

were starting. This way, the inquiry was published in Facebook Groups and LinkedIn.

Regarding university students, the total of responses was 183, however 85 responses had

to be discarded, since they were incomplete.

The e-mail questionnaire sent to both target groups was divided into three subsections: a)

Perception of the necessary competencies for the success on the labour market and

activities valued in the labour market; b) Preparation of HEI regarding a list of

competencies and which competencies do students develop outside; c) Sociodemographic

data.

3.4. Instrument

Both HEIs students and managers, throughout the questionnaire, were presented with

the same list of 21 transversal and technical competencies in which 20 are transversal

competencies (personal, interpersonal and technical) and the last item is related to the

specific technical competencies of each pedagogical area.

The group of competencies was developed by Vieira and Marques (2014), and its

composition was gathered based on national and international studies, as well as on

literature review related to competencies and employability of university students (Vieira

& Marques, 2014).

The instrument allows to study different professional profiles since it includes not only

personal and interpersonal skills (soft skills) but also technical skills, both common to

5 Data base with information on Portuguese and Spanish companies. SABI contains information such as financials, directors and contacts, corporate structures, audit report, among others (https://www.bvdinfo.com/en-gb/our-products/data/national/sabi)

https://www.bvdinfo.com/en-gb/our-products/data/national/sabi

23

various professional activities (Audibert, Vieira, De Andrade, & de Oliveira, 2020)

disregarding the bachelor’s degree (Vieira & Marques, 2014).

In “Prepared to Work?” by Vieira and Marques (2014), four perspectives are studied with

three of them using the list of the 21 Competencies specifically: Degree of usage in the

workplace; Transversal and Professional Skills Self Efficacy, Contribution of the academic

career in the development of each competency.

Focusing on the Transversal and Professional Skills Self Efficacy, the scale refers to the

level of the students’ confidence in performing each skill, and it is based on an instrument

developed by Vieira named “Transversal and Professional Skills Self Efficacy Scale” (TPS-

SE) in 2004. The original scale is structured in three different factors: 1) Personal and

Interpersonal Skills in the Workplace, 2) Complex Personal Skills and 3) Transversal

Technical Skills.

The instrument developed by Vieira (2014), was constructed having in account a sample

of 1027 recent Portuguese higher education graduates, where each competency was

analysed separately. Through an eigenvalue greater than one and scree plot observation,

results showed a division of the Competencies into three factors. All dimensions

presented factor loadings higher than 0.40 (KMO = 0.96; Barlett, χ2 (210) = 12,354.2; p

< 0,001). By the Varimax rotation method, the solution was composed by all the 21 items

in a three-dimension structure. The first dimension is related to self-efficacy in view of

the capacity to evidence personal and interpersonal skills in the workplace, which is

composed by 10 items and explains 23% of the total variance. Factor 2 explained 22% of

the total variance and assesses the confidence in relation to complex personal

Competencies including 7 items. Lastly, factor 3 is composed by the remaining 4 items

and assesses the confidence in the ability to perform transversal technical skills, it explains

15% of the total variance.

In 2020, an adaptation study placed in Brazil (Audibert et al., 2020) was performed, with

the aim of applying “Ready to Work?” to the Brazilian cultural framework as well as

evidence the psychometric properties of the tool developed by Vieira. By exploratory and

confirmatory factor analysis, it came to evidence the three factor construction of TPS-SE.

Regarding TPS-SE_Br, was found to be possible to use in different contexts such as

intervention, research or even as general indicators clustered in different dimensions or

as individual item analysis. The sample was composed by 658 Brazilians, from which 407

were college students and 251 were professional psychologists. The results of Kaiser-

24

Meyer-Olkin index and Bartlett’s sphericity test were significant showing results of KMO

= 0,91; Barlett: χ2(210) = 3041.3 and p < 0,01. Concerning the reliability tests, it supported

the division of the model into three distinct sectors: 1) Personal and Interpersonal Skills

in the workplace (α = 0,85; ω = 0,86); 2) Complex personal skills (α = 0,82; ω = 0,83) and

3) Transversal Technical skills (α = 0,65 ; ω = 0,70).

In order to summarize data making sure that relationships and patterns are easily

interpreted and understood (Yong & Pearce, 2013), a Confirmatory Factor Analysis

(CFA) was proceeded.

In Figure 1 it is possible to analyse the model divided into Factors and which

competencies belong to each factor.

Figure 1 - AFC output regarding the TPS_SE instrument applied to the present study

Tri-factorial model adjusted to a sample of 190 managers and university students. (χ2/df = 2.849; CFI = 0.769; GFI = 0.795; RMSEA = 0.1

Source: AMOS output

25

The CFA was complete using the AMOS software and its analysis was done based on the

values of the following indexes compared with the reference values by Marôco (2010): p-

value, χ2/df, Comparative Fix Index (CFI),Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) and Root Mean

Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA).

Since the p-value value is 0 (*p < 0.05), and the smaller the better, it is considered a good

fit. However, the p-value is a sensible indicator given its severe dependence on the sample

size (Schmitt, 2011). Regarding the value of χ2/df, the result is 2,894 which represents a

tolerable adjustment for being between 2 and 5. Comparing the values of CFI and GFI,

even though both values are 0,7 they are very close to 0,8 however, it is a bad adjustment.

Lastly, RMSEA has a value of 0,1 which means a good adjustment.

Having in consideration that the model was already tested in two different populations,

and the CFA’s results were satisfactory, from this point forward, items will be analysed

according to the dimensions referred above.

The list of 21 Competencies was assessed in four different contexts:

Importance of each skill for the success of a graduate in the labour market: Both target groups were

asked to answer on a Likert scale from 1 to 5 where 1 = Not important at all and 5 =

Totally important. The question was specific for graduates in the labour market since

required skills are different for entry position, Managerial or executive as referred by

Manpower (2014) (as cited in Succi & Canovi, 2019). The internal consistency, for being

higher than 0.70, resulted on a good Cronbach’s alpha as the value was 0,899 (Lisawadi,

Ahmed, Reangsephet, & Shah, 2019). Analysing, Table 3, the Cronbach’s alpha for both

groups individually and for each dimension are presented, most of the calculated values

are above 0.7, meaning a consistent internal rate unless values regarding the importance

of Transversal Technical Skills which present values above 0.6, being a questionable

internal rate of consistency (Gliem & Gliem, 2003)

Preparation of HEIs regarding each skill: Managers and Undergraduates were asked on a Likert

scale from 1 = Does not prepare at all - to 5 = Totally prepares. Managers were asked to

give opinion based on their experience working with graduates and Undergraduates based

on their current knowledge. The overall internal consistency rate presented an excellent

value of 0.907 (Gliem & Gliem, 2003). Analysing the internal consistency rate of each

dimension (Table 3), as for managers and students, most dimensions present values above

0.7 meaning a good Cronbach’s alpha. Only the Preparation of Transversal and Technical

26

Skills was less than 0.7 however, as being near to 0.6, it is considered a poor to

questionable internal rate of consistency for George and Mallery (2003) (as cited in Gliem

& Gliem, 2003).

Preparation of Competencies extra curricula: This question was directed to students and they

selected the competencies they look to develop outside HEIs, as they believe those are

necessary for the labour market. The same 21 Competencies were used, but answers were

simply yes/no for parsimony reasons.

This question was only presented to students which showed concern on developing skills

outside HEIs answering equal or above 3 points when answered “To what extent do you

agree to the following statement: I need to look for alternatives to develop certain skills

for the university because, in my opinion, they are essential in the labour market but HEIs

do not develop them.” This question was answered on a Likert scale from 1 = Strongly

disagree to 5 = Strongly agree.

Cronbach Alphas

Measure Dimensions Managers HEIs

students Overall

Importance

IMP_PISWP 0.793 0.895 0.853

IMP_CompPS 0.795 0.880 0.833

IMP_TTECS 0.616 0.660 0.634

Preparation

PREP_PISWP 0.853 0.855 0.855

PREP_CompPS 0.866 0.791 0.835

PREP_TTECS 0.735 0.594 0.657


Table 3 - Cronbach's alpha discriminated for each dimension and target group

27

3.5. Sample

The conclusions represent the opinion of 78 Undergraduates and 112 professionals of the

management area.

HEIs students Managers Total

N % Mean SD N % Mean SD N % Mean SD

Age 78 23,37 5,13 112 46,58 11,1 190 37,05 14,7

Gender Female 48 62% 58 52% 106 56%

Male 30 38% 54 48% 84 44%

Regarding HEIs students, the average age is 23 years old with a standard deviation of 5,13

(min = 18; max = 47). From the total of 78, 30 are male students which results on a

percentage of 38%, with the remaining 62% being female students (N=48).

The questionnaire surveyed students from the bachelor and master’s degree related to the

management field. From the total of the sample, 60 (77%) are bachelor students and the

remaining 18 (23%) are master students. The desire of 24 (31%) is to pursue their studies

but 58% (N=45) want to enter the labour market, while 9 students (11%) did not choose

either of those options within the option “Other”, 8 students answered that they not only

want to keep studying but also enter the labour market, and the remaining 1 is a bachelor

student who showed the will to stop for one year and then return to study. Analysing the

bachelor students as a group, 88% want to continue their studies. From the total of the

sample, 31% (N=24) university students already worked in their field of study mainly, in

the form of summer jobs, internships, curricular internships. Considering the remaining

54 interviewees (69%), they have no experience in the labour market.

Concerning the managers inquiry, from the total of 112, 52% (N= 58) were female and

48% (N=54) male. The sample represents an average age of 47 years old, with a higher

standard deviation when comparing to students of 11,14 (min = 23; max = 78), which

means that the group of managers has more dispersed ages.

Regarding their professional area, the sample is composed by accountants, financials,

managers, economists, bankers, human resources managers and marketeers, from

different fields, such as energy, industry, or Healthcare.


Table 4 - Sample Demographics

28

Respecting to experience, in the past five years, 73% (N=82) participated as a recruiter

on an enrolment process of the company, and 72% (N=81) worked directly with a

graduate. In case of answering negatively to the question above, the questions related to

this subject were not asked, in order to have reliable and accurate data.

29

4. Results

Within this section, results are presented aiming at answering the proposed research

questions.

4.1. Correlational Analysis

Correlations between dimensions were performed, as it is possible to confirm in Table 5

and 6, importance factors are positively and strongly correlated between each other and

in both groups, which means that as students and managers perception about Personal

and Interpersonal Skills in the Workplace importance is higher, more importance to both

other factors will be precepted.

For university students, as more importance is given to the competencies for their success

in the labour market, more preparation is believed to be given by HEIs since the

importance is also positively correlated with the preparation of HEIs in all dimensions

(Table 5). For this group as well, as more importance is given to Transversal Technical

Skills, the opinion on the preparation of HEIs will also increase (r = 0.265, p < 0.05) and

the concern for extra curricula development of the same set of competencies will increase

as well ( r =0.311, p < 0.01). Additionally, as more concerned university students are to

develop Personal and Interpersonal Skills in the Workplace, more extra curricula attention

is given to Complex Personal Skills as well (r = 0,463, p < 0,01). The correlation results

are present in Table 5.

Regarding the results of managers, they believe that as Personal and Interpersonal Skills

in the Workplace are gaining importance, the perception that HEIs will better prepare

students in those same competencies also increases (r = 0,290, p < 0.01), as well as in

Transversal Technical Skills (r = 0,334, p < 0.01).

The level of preparation on Complex Personal Skills given by HEIs in the perspective of

managers, is strongly correlated with the preparation of Personal and Interpersonal Skills

in the Workplace (r = 0,740, p < 0.01) which means that, for managers, as the preparation

of one factor gets better, the preparation of HEIs on Personal and Interpersonal Skills

will increase as well.

In relation to the Preparation of HEIs in Transversal Technical Skills, in the view of

managers, it is strongly and positively correlated with the importance given to this same

30

dimension (r = 0,328, p < 0.01) and with the preparation of the remaining dimensions.

These correlations are proved in Table 6.

31

Table 5 – Pearson’s Factor correlations for HEIs students


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 N M SD

1.IMP_Personal and Interpersonal

Skills in the Workplace,791** ,632** ,513** ,442** ,292** 0,176 0,038 0,128 78 4,132 0,618

2.IMP_Complex Personal Skills ,580** ,340** ,266* ,312** 0,172 0,125 0,125 78 3,965 0,676

3.IMP_Transversal Technical Skills ,335** ,314** ,265* -0,024 -0,013 ,311** 78 4,058 0,534

4.PREP_Personal and Interpersonal

Skills in the Workplace,700** ,684** -0,015 0,103 -0,112 78 3,450 0,675

5.PREP_Complex Personal Skills ,540** -0,012 -0,047 -0,131 78 3,289 0,651

6.PREP_Transversal Technical Skills -0,041 0,086 -0,182 78 3,362 0,653

7.PREPEC_Personal and

Interpersonal Skills in the Workplace,463** 0,133 72 0,185 0,155

8.PREPEC_Complex Personal Skills -0,190 72 0,317 0,266

9.PREPEC_Transversal Technical

Skills72 0,288 0,235

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

32

Table 6 – Pearson’s Factor correlations for managers


1 2 3 4 5 6 N M SD

1.IMP_Personal and Interpersonal

Skills in the Workplace

,354** ,590** ,290** 0,168 0,190 1124,228 0,420

2.IMP_Complex Personal Skills,221* 0,103 0,072 0,071 112

3,986 0,556

3.IMP_Transversal Technical Skills,334** ,311** ,328** 112

4,011 0,509

4.PREP_Personal and Interpersonal


,740** ,535** 813,253 0,595

5.PREP_Complex Personal Skills,486** 81

2,884 0,682

6.PREP_Transversal Technical Skills81

3,716 0,673

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

33

Q1. Which skills are considered by HEIs students as being the most

important ones to be successful in the labour market?

When asked on which competencies university students perceive as being the most

important for their success in the labour market, Personal and Interpersonal Skill in the

Workplace are the most highly valued (mean = 4.132, SD = 0.618) as it can be seen in

Table 7. From this dimension, skills like Lifelong learning (mean = 4.397, SD = 0,827),

Teamwork (mean = 4.282, SD = 0.896) and Flexibility and adaptation (mean = 4.282, SD =

0.866) are part of the most important skills in their perception together with Analysis and

problem-solving (mean = 4.385, SD = 0.760) as the second most important competency in

the labour market, presented in Table 8.

N M SD

IMP_Personal and Interpersonal

Skills in the Workplace78 4,132 0,618

IMP_Complex Personal Skills 78 3,965 0,676

IMP_Transversal Technical Skills 78 4,058 0,534

HEIs students

Table 7 – Means and Standard Deviations regarding the opinion of HEIs students on the importance of each dimension on the labour market


34

Table 8 – Means and Standard Deviations ordered by importance of each skill in the opinion of HEIs students


Dimension Competencies N M SD

Personal and Interpersonal

Skills in the WorkplaceLifelong learning 78 4,397 0,827

Complex Personal Skills Analysis and problem-solving 78 4,385 0,760


Skills in the WorkplaceFlexibility and adaptation 78 4,282 0,866


Skills in the WorkplaceTeamwork 78 4,282 0,896


Skills in the WorkplaceActive listening 78 4,256 0,763

Complex Personal Skills Time management 78 4,244 0,871

Transversal Technical Skills Field-specific skills 78 4,154 0,704


Skills in the WorkplaceStriving for excellence 78 4,141 0,893


Skills in the WorkplaceEthics and social responsibility 78 4,141 0,963

Complex Personal Skills Planning and organization 78 4,090 0,885


Skills in the WorkplaceOral communication 78 4,077 0,802

Transversal Technical SkillsInformation and communication

technologies 78 4,077 0,802



Interpersonal relationships and conflict

management 78 4,026 0,805

Transversal Technical Skills Ability to conceptualize 78 4,013 0,730

Transversal Technical Skills Proficiency in foreign languages 78 3,987 0,798

Complex Personal Skills Decision-making 78 3,962 0,844


Skills in the WorkplaceWritten communication 78 3,859 0,785


Skills in the WorkplaceDiversity and multiculturality 78 3,859 0,990

Complex Personal Skills Creativity and innovation 78 3,808 0,981

Complex Personal Skills Risk taking 78 3,692 0,916

Complex Personal Skills Leadership 78 3,577 0,933

HEIs students

35

Q2. Is there a relationship on what students and managers believe is

necessary when transitioning to the working life, post-University?

In the opinion of managers, Personal and Interpersonal Skills in the Workplace are the

most important for the success of a graduate in the labour market (mean = 4.228, SD =

0.420), as presented in Table 9. At the top, as most important competencies, are Analysis

and Problem-solving (mean = 4.536, SD = 0.463), Teamwork (mean = 4.438, SD = 0.597),

Interpersonal Relationships and Conflict Management (mean = 4.429, SD = 0.596) and Flexibility

and Adaptation (mean = 4.411, SD = 0.637), discriminated in Table 10.

Comparing both opinions, Personal and Interpersonal Skills in the Workplace are

presented by both groups as the most important set of skills for the success of a graduate

in the labour market as confirmed in Table 11 which predicts that HEIs students have

the aware of the labour market required skills. Not only on the most important but also

on the least important, opinions match. Both managers and HEIs students settle that

Complex Personal Skills are the least important competencies.

Three competencies are on the top in the perception of both groups regarding their

importance which are Analysis and problem solving, Flexibility and adaptation and Teamwork.

Regarding the significant differences on the perceptions of importance, there is no

significant mean difference between dimensions however, when analysing them separately

as seen in Table 12, some significances stand out.

The competencies with the biggest differences were Risk Taking where students rated as

more important than managers (t = 2.140 , p = 0.034), Interpersonal relationships and conflict

management (t = -3.963, p = 0.000), Creativity and innovation (t = -3.213, p = 0.02) and Written

communication (t = -2.764, p = 0.006). The three last mentioned are more important to

managers than to HEIs students.

N M SD



IMP_Complex Personal Skills 112 3,986 0,556

IMP_Transversal Technical Skills 112 4,011 0,509

Managers

Table 9 - Means and Standard Deviations regarding the opinion of managers on the importance of each dimension on the labour market


36

N M SD

Analysis and problem-solving 112 4,536 0,643

Decision-making 112 3,768 0,986

Planning and organization 112 4,188 0,704

Time management 112 4,170 0,721

Risk taking 112 3,393 0,971

Oral communication 112 4,045 0,649

Active listening 112 4,250 0,765

Written communication 112 4,143 0,628


management 112 4,429 0,596

Leadership 112 3,643 0,976

Creativity and innovation 112 4,205 0,725

Flexibility and adaptation 112 4,411 0,637

Lifelong learning 112 4,223 0,779

Ability to conceptualize 112 3,946 0,641

Teamwork 112 4,438 0,597

Striving for excellence 112 4,321 0,687

Diversity and multiculturality 112 3,777 0,846

Ethics and social responsibility 112 4,241 0,852

Information and communication


Proficiency in foreign languages 112 3,839 0,865

Field-specific skills 112 4,107 0,798

Managers

Table 10 - Means and Standard Deviations regarding the opinion of managers on the importance of each skill on the labour market


37

Table 11 - Average classification, Standard Deviations and group differences for the importance of each dimension on the labour market


Table 12 - Average classification, Standard Deviations and group differences for the importance of each skill on the labour market


N M SD N M SD t

Analysis and problem-solving 112 4,536 0,643 78 4,385 0,760 -1,478

Decision-making 112 3,768 0,986 78 3,962 0,844 1,411

Planning and organization 112 4,188 0,704 78 4,090 0,885 -0,846

Time management 112 4,170 0,721 78 4,244 0,871 0,638

Risk taking 112 3,393 0,971 78 3,692 0,916 2,140*

Oral communication 112 4,045 0,649 78 4,077 0,802 0,306

Active listening 112 4,250 0,765 78 4,256 0,763 0,570

Written communication 112 4,143 0,628 78 3,859 0,785 -2,764*


management 112 4,429 0,596 78 4,026 0,805 -3,963***

Leadership 112 3,643 0,976 78 3,577 0,933 -0,466

Creativity and innovation 112 4,205 0,725 78 3,808 0,981 -3,213*

Flexibility and adaptation 112 4,411 0,637 78 4,282 0,866 -1,179

Lifelong learning 112 4,223 0,779 78 4,397 0,827 1,478

Ability to conceptualize 112 3,946 0,641 78 4,013 0,730 0,663

Teamwork 112 4,438 0,597 78 4,282 0,896 -1,436

Striving for excellence 112 4,321 0,687 78 4,141 0,893 -1,572

Diversity and multiculturality 112 3,777 0,846 78 3,859 0,990 0,614

Ethics and social responsibility 112 4,241 0,852 78 4,141 0,963 -0,755


technologies 112 4,152 0,660 78 4,077 0,802 -0,773

Proficiency in foreign languages 112 3,839 0,865 78 3,987 0,798 1,196

Field-specific skills 112 4,107 0,798 78 4,154 0,704 0,416

*p < 0.05. ***p < 0.001

Managers HEIs students

N M SD N M SD t


Skills in the Workplace112 4,228 0,420 78 4,132 0,618 -1,27

IMP_Complex Personal Skills 112 3,986 0,556 78 3,965 0,676 -0,232

IMP_Transversal Technical Skills 112 4,011 0,509 78 4,058 0,534 0,607

*p < 0.05. ***p < 0.001

HEIs studentsManagers

38

Q3. What skills do students and managers feel that HEIs develop the

most?

University students feel that Personal and Interpersonal Skills in the Labour Market (mean

= 3.450, SD = 0.675) are the ones HEIs provide better tools for their development (Table

13), considering that Teamwork is the better developed (mean = 3.885, SD = 1,116). On

the contrary, Complex Personal Skill are considered the least developed (mean = 3.289,

SD = 0.651) and university students percept Proficiency in foreign languages as the least

prepared by HEIs (mean = 2.756, SD = 1.107) as it can be proven in Table 14.

Analysing the opinion of managers on this matter, they believe that Transversal and

Technical Skills (mean = 3.716, SD = 0.673) are the better prepared and consider

Complex Personal Skills (mean = 2.884, SD = 0.682) as the least prepared competencies

as it is possible to analyse in Table 13.

Considering competencies individually, present in Table 14, Information and communication

technologies (mean = 4.000, SD = 0.806) is the one that managers feel as coming better

prepared from HEIs followed by Field-specific skills (mean = 3.840, SD = 0.928) and

Proficiency in foreign languages (mean = 3.654, SD = 0.977), competencies that belong to

Transversal Technical Skills.

Skills such as Risk taking (mean = 2.457, SD = 0.962), Decision making (mean = 2.679, SD

= 0.906), Leadership (mean = 2.679, SD = 0.906) and Teamwork (mean = 3.630, SD =

0.828) are on the bottom of the ranking.

Analysing the largest differences when comparing both perceptions on this matter, the

biggest difference is related to Complex Personal Skills (t = 3.863, p = 0.000) where

university students give a bigger ranking than managers with a mean difference of 0.4, as

confirmed in Table 13.

Individually, several competencies stand out regarding the differences on perceptions.

Risk taking is better ranked by HEIs students than managers (t = 4.226, p = 0.000), Time

management is in the same situation with a mean of 3,577 for students and 2,802 in the

opinion of managers (t = 4.868, p = 0.000) together with Decision-making (t = 3.922, p =

0.000), Planning and organization ( t = 4.087, p = 0.000), Flexibility and adaptation (t = 2.387,

p = 0.018) and, finally, Lifelong learning (t = 2.978, p = 0.03). According to managers,

Analysis and problem solving ( t = 2.292, p = 0.023), Creativity and Innovation (t = 2.393, p =

0.018), Diversity and multiculturality (t = -2.041, p = 0.043), Information and communication

technologies (t = -4.163, p = 0.000), Proficiency in foreign languages (t = -5.428, p = 0.000), are

39

viewed as better prepared comparing to the perception of university students.

Discriminated competencies and respective p -values are present in Table 14.


N M SD N M SD t

PREP_Personal and

Interpersonal Skills in the 81 3,253 0,595 78 3,450 0,675 1,952

PREP_Complex Personal Skills 81 2,884 0,682 78 3,289 0,651 3,836***

PREP_Transversal Technical

Skills81 3,716 0,673 78 3,362 0,653 -3,64***

*p < 0.05. ***p < 0.001

HEIs studentsManagers

Table 14 - Average classification, Standard Deviations and group differences on the preparation given by HEIs on each skill


Table 13 - Average classification, Standard Deviations and group differences on the preparation given by HEIs on each dimension

40

Q4. How do students strive to develop skills outside HEIs?

Regarding the confidence of university students on the preparation of these institutions,

it is possible to understand that they do not fully rely on the preparation of HEIs, feeling

the need to develop some skills outside this environment. Besides the low evaluation given

by students to each competency, when confronted with the need to develop certain

competencies outside HEIs for feeling that institutions do not give the right tools, most

graduates agree with the sentence partially (n = 37, 47.4%) or completely (n = 30, 38.5%)

as presented in Table 15. From those who are neutral or agree on developing skills outside

HEIs (n = 72, 92,4%), most develop Complex Personal Skills (mean = 0.327, SD = 0.151)

as seen in Table 16 being the four most looked for: Proficiency in foreign languages (mean =

0.681, SD = 0.470); Oral communication (mean = 0.486, SD = 0.503); Analysis and problem-

solving (mean = 0.431, SD = 0.499) and Leadership (mean = 0.431, SD = 0.499), showed in

Table 17.

Regarding which activities students participate, 44 (56.4%) look for additional courses to

develop hard skills such as English courses or Excel, for example. Other activities with

the most participations are volunteering (n = 38, 48.7%), sports (n = 30, 38.5%) and

temporary jobs (n = 28, 35.9%) presented in Table 18.

Having in consideration the competencies prepared by university students, outside HEIs,

the dimension with the most concern is Complex Personal Skills, which is considered by

both groups as the least prepared by HEIs, as well as the least important for graduates to

be successful in the labour market.

The competency with the most concern of being developed is Proficiency in foreign languages

which was the least ranked from HEIs students regarding the preparation of HEIs, but it

is on the top of managers.

Regarding Analysis and problem-solving which is also developed outside HEIs, is seen as one

of the most important competencies for the success of a graduate in the labour market by

both groups.

Nevertheless, when questioned about the level of confidence students have in finding a

job within six months after finishing their studies, on a Likert Scale from 1 = Not

confident at all to 5 = Totally confident, most respondents (n = 25, 32.1%) answered

Neither too much nor too little (3), as seen in Table 19.

41


Table 16 - Average classification and Standard Deviations regarding the dimensions students look for developing outside HEIs

Table 15 - Answers of students when confronted with the sentence: “I need to look for alternatives to develop certain skills because, in my opinion, they are essential in the labour market but HEIs do not develop them.”


N M SD

PREPEC_Personal and Interpersonal


PREPEC_Complex Personal Skills 72 0,327 0,232

PREPEC_Transversal Technical Skills 72 0,313 0,229

HEIs students

N %

1. Strongly Disagree 2 2,6

2. Disagree 4 5,1

3. Neutral 5 6,4

4. Agree 37 47,4

5. Strongly agree 30 38,5

42

Table 17 - Average classification and Standard Deviations of the skills students look for developing outside HEIs


N M SD

Analysis and problem-solving 72 0,431 0,499

Decision-making 72 0,347 0,479

Planning and organization 72 0,236 0,428

Time management 72 0,389 0,491

Risk taking 72 0,097 0,298

Oral communication 72 0,486 0,503

Active listening 72 0,111 0,316

Written communication 72 0,097 0,298

Interpersonal relationships and

conflict management 72 0,319 0,470

Leadership 72 0,431 0,499

Creativity and innovation 72 0,361 0,484

Flexibility and adaptation 72 0,111 0,316

Lifelong learning 72 0,264 0,444

Ability to conceptualize 72 0,139 0,348

Teamwork 72 0,194 0,399

Striving for excellence 72 0,194 0,399

Diversity and multiculturality 72 0,083 0,278

Ethics and social responsibility 72 0,139 0,348



Proficiency in foreign languages 72 0,681 0,470

Field-specific skills 72 0,153 0,362

HEIs students

43


Table 18 - Extra Curricula activities students enrol to develop skills that they believe HEIs do not develop

N %

Aditional courses to develop hard skills (Excel, English) 44 56,4

Volunteering 38 48,7

Sports 30 38,5

Temporary jobs 28 35,9

Aditional courses to develop Soft Skills (Communication,

Leadership)27 34,6

Seminars and Conferences 22 28,2

Erasmus 21 26,9

Summer internships 18 23,1

Curricular intership 14 17,9

Students Associations 10 12,8

Students organisations 8 10,3

Scouts 3 3,8

Summer School 2 2,6

N %

7 9,0

2. Slightly confident15 19,2

3. Somewhat confident25 32,1

4. Moderatly confident22 28,2

5. Very confident9 11,5

1. Not at all confident


Table 19 - Answers of students when asked their level of confidence on entering the labour market in the first 6 months after ending their study cycle.

44

5. Discussion

As the intention of the present study is to understand if HEIs students are aware of the

skills necessary in the labour market, together with their level of self-responsibility to

develop the skills they think are necessary in the labour market, the expectations of

university students about the labour market were confronted with the opinion of

managers based on their work experience.

Starting with correlation analysis, in the opinion of university students, as they believe that

those factors are more valuable for their success in the labour market, more preparation

is given by HEIs, showing that students believe that HEIs are adapting to the market

needs.

Focusing on the importance of Transversal Technical Skills, if increases, the opinion on

the preparation of HEIs will also increase as well as the concern for extra curricula

development of the same competencies which shows that transversal technical skills are

a concern for students.

Concerning our first question on the skills considered by HEIs students as being the most

important ones to be successful in the labour market, the top four competencies on the

opinion of HEIs students, Analysis and problem solving, Teamwork, Flexibility and adaptation

together with Lifelong learning, score highest, showing that students are aware of the fast

changing times as well as the need to continue studying and keep knowledge updated.

Some of the reasons why students highly value continuous learning and training, might

be to better adjust to company/project requirements, to increase salary level, the chance

of networking or to increase the chances of finding new job opportunities.

As for managers from the top four on the most important skills for the success of a

graduate on the labour market Analysis and problem solving, Teamwork, Interpersonal relationships

and conflict management and Flexibility and adaptation, three of them are directly related to

relationship with co-workers, as well as readiness for changes and adaptation reflecting

the need in the present century for companies and employees to adapt to globalisation

and digitalisation trends, key for competitive advantage, confirming the needs of constant

adaptation supported in the literature review section.

All top competencies are soft skills which confirms the new importance given to these

types of skills as supported by Robles (2012) on business executives that highlight the

importance of soft skills in job applicants.

45

Another evident difference was Risk taking but, in this case, is perceived as having more

importance for HEIs students than managers. The latter is seen by both groups as one of

the least important competencies together with Leadership, possibly because these skills

are needed in higher positions but not at an entrance level.

Regarding the preparation of HEIs, managers agree that transversal technical

competencies as Information and communication technologies, Field specific skills and Proficiency in

foreign languages are on the top of the better prepared by HEIs, confirming what was

discussed in the literature review section regarding the mismatch on the competencies

employers require and the ones better developed by HEIs. As exploited in the literature

review section, researchers defend that the lack on the preparation of soft skills is due to

the fear of teachers on sacrificing the content of lectures (Anthony, 2014) and the

possibility of students to undervalue the importance of soft skills (Anthony & Garner,

2016)as there is no objective way to evaluate the success of their development (Balcar,

2016).

Another point to have in consideration is that, in the opinion of both managers and

students, most competencies are considered as “neutral” or less regarding the preparation

given by HEIs. In the opinion of managers, there is only competency considered as

developed by HEIs which is Information and communication technologies, having an average of

4. On the other side, in the perspective of students, none of the competencies were

considered as being developed by HEIs since all present averages of 3 or less.

This conclusion confirms the study by Succi and Canovi (2019), where the majority of

respondents (60,2%) showed dissatisfaction on the preparation of HEIs regarding soft

skills feeling that students are not well or very well prepared.

Additionally, it was important to understand if HEIs students felt the need to develop

competencies they though universities lacked on preparing, in order to enhance their

confidence for the labour market. Actually, the three most ranked competencies were

Proficiency in foreign language, Oral communication and Analysis and problem solving. In the case of

Proficiency in foreign languages, university students ranked as not well prepared by HEIs,

which was the opposite of managers, who believe is one of the most well prepared.

Therefore, even if HEIs do not prepare students on this matter, they perceive as being a

necessary competency in this globalised environment, so they look for other resources to

develop it.

46

Managers agree that graduates should be encouraged by HEIs to step out of their comfort

zone in order to develop cognitive skills aiming to apply what they have learned, know

how to work with others and solve problems (Succi & Canovi, 2019).

47

6. Conclusion

The present study aimed at understanding the university students’ perspective about the

reality of companies, and the necessary skills to be successful once transitioning into the

labour market, as well as their experienced counterparts, managers, while comparing the

two.

The results highlighted that HEIs students are well-aware of the fast-changing world and

the Competencies needed to rapidly adapt to it although, the preparation given by HEIs

seems to still focus on technical skills rather than on Personal and Interpersonal Skills in

the Workplace, which are highly valued by practitioners (managers).

As the discussion is focused on companies making HEIs accountable for the preparation

of students, the study reveals that Undergraduates feel the responsibility as well to develop

certain skills through extra curricula activities, attempting to close the gap of what is

provided by HEIs and what is expected by Managers.

Some HEIs will adapt to the changing needs and some will not. Predictably, learning will

be more focused on collaboration, reflection, and interaction. The processes and

assessments of learning will focus on relevance for practice and competence (Cross,

2010).

From the student perspective, the need for competence instead of knowledge transfer,

the demand for practice-oriented learning scenarios and an enforced mobility needs are

some of the changes (Cross, 2010).

Soft skills teaching can be integrated in classes through didactic tools such as project work,

simulation, case studies and learning games. Seminars and workshops regarding this topic

can also be provided (Cimatti, 2016).

Further, HEIs, should be increasingly involved with real-world organizations in order to

facilitate a more efficient adaptation to the changes in economy needs (Ferrández-

Berrueco, Kekale, & Devins, 2016). Activities such as visits, internships or joined

programs are effective on the increase of students’ transversal competences (Cimatti,

2016).

48

6.1. Limitations and future research

It is important to highlight that the present study and respective results have some

limitations that need to be considered.

Firstly, the limitation of time for data collection together with the changes in universities

regarding COVID-19 turned the sample limited. As for university students, it would be

important to collect more data, since many started to answer but did not end the

questionnaire.

Developing the dissertation and respective data collection during pandemic times may

have an implication on the answers regarding the preparation of HEIs since students,

during the last months, had classes remotely and activities proposed by universities may

have been cancelled. For future research it would be interesting to understand if the

current pandemic had consequences on the development of soft skills for university

students or to understand how HEIs adapted to current times.

Finally, analysing results having in consideration demographic data is advised for future

research. The present study did not focus on detailing demographic data such as company

size, field of study or region.

6.2. Theoretical contributions

This dissertation as mentioned, compared the perceptions of students about the

importance of 21 competencies together with the opinion of managers on the same

subject. After, it was confronted with the preparation given by HEIs on the perspective

of both target groups. Both questions aimed to understand if HEIs were adapting to fast

changing companies needs. After, results were complemented with the evaluation of

university students on developing skills outside HEIs for believing the tools given by

HEIs were not enough. In order to complement, managers were asked which

competencies should already be developed before entering the labour market.

Most studies on this matter do not emphasize the role of students and extra curricula

activities they enrol by their own initiative.

Therefore, the present study complements by assembling the level of importance of each

skill for a graduate, the preparation of HEIs and the initiative taken by students.

49

Complemented with the opinion of managers on competencies that should already be

developed and the ones that the day to day job does develop.

The research reflects that universities still focus on technical skills rather than Soft Skills

and therefore, as students have the consciousness on the most important skills in the

labour market, resolve to develop them in extra curricula activities.

6.3. Practical contributions

The present study has practical contributions for HEIs, students and practitioners:

- HEIs now have a better understanding of what both Managers and Undergraduates

value so they can adapt the curricular programmes, to better prepare their students when

entering the Labour Market.

- Undergraduates are now aware of what Managers expect of them on a professional level,

so they can develop the necessary skills, whether it is at University or through extra-

curricular activities.

- Regarding teachers, their role will pass from information spreaders to tutors who

support social interaction, innovation and invention (Cross, 2010). Teachers will need to

deal with new and unanswered questions as the process of learning in a participative and

reflective new learning paradigm (Cross, 2010).

- Lastly, Practitioners expect both Undergraduates and HEIs to have a better

understanding of what is necessary to be successful when accessing the labour market, so

that young professionals can create more value in the working environment.

50

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Appendixes

Appendix 1 – Questionnaire to managers Estão os recém-graduados preparados?

O meu nome é Maria Costa e estou a terminar o Mestrado em Gestão pela Faculdade de

Economia da Universidade do Porto. Para dar o mestrado como concluído, seria muito

importante a sua participação neste questionário relativo às expetativas dos gestores face

às competências desenvolvidas pelos recém-graduados antes de entrarem no mercado de

trabalho.

A resposta a este inquérito deverá levar cerca de 5min. As suas respostas são anónimas e

confidenciais. Agradeço a sua colaboração!

Existem 14 perguntas neste inquérito

Grupo 1: Recrutamento de recém-graduados

1. Nos últimos 5 anos, participou num processo de recrutamento como recrutador/a? *

Por favor, selecione apenas uma das seguintes opções:

Sim

Não

Entendendo o conceito de Soft Skills como o conjunto de competências pessoais e

interpessoais e Hard Skills como as competências técnico-cientificas específicas de cada

área formativa.

2. Em 100 pontos, quantos atribui às Soft Skills e quantos atribui às Hard Skills

relativamente à importância destas para o sucesso de um recém-graduado no mercado

de trabalho

NOTA: Se pretende dar 100 pontos a uma das Skills, por favor preencha a outra skill

com o valor 0 para que possa avançar.

Nestes campos só é possível introduzir números.

Recém-Graduado

Soft Skills

Hard Skills

57

3. Considerando as Soft Skills e Hard Skills presentes no próximo quadro,

classifique-as de 1 a 5 sendo 1 menos importante e 5 mais importante,

relativamente ao papel de cada uma no sucesso de um recém graduado no

mercado de trabalho.

1 2 3 4 5

Análise e resolução de problemas

Tomada de decisão

Planeamento e organização

Gestão do tempo

Assunção do risco

Expressão oral

Escuta ativa

Comunicação escrita

Relacionamento interpessoal e gestão de

conflitos

Liderança

Criatividade e inovação

Adaptação e flexibilidade

Aprendizagem ao longo da vida

Capacidade de conceptualizar

Trabalho em equipa

Motivação para a excelência

Diversidade e multiculturalidade

Ética e responsabilidade social

Tecnologias da informação e comunicação

Domínio de línguas estrangeiras

Competências técnicas da área específica de

conhecimento

4. Quais as três atividades extracurriculares que mais valoriza no Currículo de um

recém-graduado? *

58

Selecione no máximo 3 respostas

Por favor, selecione todas as que se aplicam:

Voluntariado

Escuteiros

Desporto

Erasmus

Cursos Adicionais (Inglês, Excel, Comunicação,...)

Estágio de Verão

Trabalhos temporários

Summer School

Estágio Curricular

Outro:

Grupo 2: Trabalhar com recém-graduados

5. Nos últimos 5 anos, trabalhou com um recém-graduado? *


Sim

Não

6. Numa escala de 1 a 5, sendo 1 o nível mais baixo e 5 o mais alto, considerando a sua

experiência, qual o nível de preparação dos recém-graduados para o mercado de

trabalho? *

Responda a esta pergunta apenas se as seguintes condições são verdadeiras:

A resposta for 'Sim' na pergunta '5 [P7]' (5. Nos últimos 5 anos, trabalhou com um

recém-graduado?)

Por favor, selecione a posição apropriada para cada elemento:

1 2 3 4 5

A nível de Soft Skills

A nível de Hard Skills

7. Para cada competência apresentada na seguinte lista, até que ponto considera

que a universidade prepara os recém graduados para o mercado de trabalho?

Classifique utilizando uma escala de 1 a 5 em que 1 é não prepara nada e 5 que

prepara totalmente.

59

1 2 3 4 5


Tomada de decisão


Gestão do tempo

Assunção do risco

Expressão oral

Escuta ativa



conflitos

Liderança





Trabalho em equipa




Tecnologias da informação e

comunicação


Competências técnicas da área específica

de conhecimento

8. Considerando as competências anteriormente referidas, quais acha

imprescindíveis de já estarem desenvolvidas pelos recém graduados antes de

começarem no mercado de trabalho

Responda a esta pergunta apenas se as seguintes condições são verdadeiras:


60


Tomada de decisão


Gestão do tempo

Assunção do risco

Expressão oral

Escuta ativa


Relacionamento interpessoal e gestão de conflitos

Liderança





Trabalho em equipa






Competências técnicas da área específica de conhecimento

Outro:

9. Há vinte anos, para o sucesso de um gestor, as soft skills tinham menos

importância que a que têm nos dias de hoje.

Numa escala de 1 a 5, qual o seu nível de concordância com esta afirmação?


1. Discordo Totalmente

61

2. Discordo Parcialmente

3. Indiferente

4. Concordo Parcialmente

5. Concordo Totalmente

Grupo 3: Dados

10. Em que área trabalha *

Por favor, escreva aqui a sua resposta:

11. Género *


Feminino

Masculino

Outro

12. Idade *


13. Caso seja do seu interesse saber o resultado final do meu estudo, deixe aqui o seu e-

mail


14. Para qualquer comentário adicional, não hesite em escrevê-lo aqui


Muito obrigada pela sua participação!

Maria Costa Submeter o seu inquérito

20/07/2020 – 10:46 Obrigado por ter concluído este inquérito.

Appendix 2 – Questionnaire to HEIs students Preparado para o mercado de trabalho?

O meu nome é Maria Costa e estou a terminar o Mestrado em Gestão pela Faculdade de

Economia da Universidade do Porto. Para dar o mestrado como concluído, seria muito

importante a sua participação neste questionário relativo às expetativas dos gestores face

à confiança dos recém-graduados como também sobre as competências desenvolvidas

pelos recém-graduados antes de entrarem no mercado de trabalho.

62

A resposta a este inquérito deverá levar cerca de 5min. As suas respostas são anónimas e

confidenciais. Agradeço a sua colaboração!

Existem 15 perguntas neste inquérito

Grupo 1: O mercado de trabalho

1. Sente-se confiante que irá arranjar um emprego nos primeiros 6 meses após terminar

o seu ciclo de estudos? *


1. Nada Confiante

2. Pouco Confiante

3. Nem Muito Nem Pouco Confiante

4. Muito Confiante

5. Totalmente Confiante

Entendendo o conceito de Soft Skills como o conjunto de competências pessoais e

interpessoais e Hard Skills como as competências técnico-cientificas específicas de cada

área formativa.

2. Em 100 pontos, quantos atribui às Soft Skills e quantos atribui às Hard

Skills relativamente ao seu grau de importância para o sucesso de um recém-graduado

no mercado de trabalho.

NOTA: Se prentende dar 100 pontos a uma das Skills, por favor preencha a outra skill

com o valor 0 para que possa avançar. *

Nestes campos só é possível introduzir números.

Recém-Graduado

Soft Skills

Hard Skills

3. Considerando as Soft Skills e Hard Skills presentes no próximo quadro, avalie numa

escala de 1 a 5, sendo 1 o nível mais baixo e 5 o mais alto, relativamente à sua

importância para o sucesso de um recém graduado no mercado de trabalho.*


1 2 3 4 5


63

1 2 3 4 5

Tomada de decisão


Gestão do tempo

Assunção do risco

Expressão oral

Escuta ativa



conflitos

Liderança





Trabalho em equipa







conhecimento

Grupo 2: A Universidade e competências desenvolvidas

4. Numa escala de 1 a 5, sendo 1 o nível mais baixo e 5 o mais alto,em quanto avalia o

nível a que a sua universidade o preparou para entrar no mercado de trabalho? *


1 2 3 4 5

A nível de Soft Skills

64

1 2 3 4 5

A nível de Hard Skills

5. Até que ponto concorda com a seguinte afirmação:

"Tenho necessidade de procurar alternativas para desenvolver certas

competências fora da universidade pois, a meu ver, são imprescindíveis no

mercado de trabalho e a universidade não as desenvolve" *


1. Discordo Totalmente

2. Discordo Parcialmente

3. Indiferente

4. Concordo Parcialmente

5. Concordo Totalmente

6. Por cada competência apresentada na seguinte lista, até que ponto considera

que a sua universidade o prepara para o mercado de trabalho.

Classifique utilizando uma escala de 1 a 5, em que 1 é não prepara nada e o 5 que

prepara totalmente.*


1 2 3 4 5


Tomada de decisão


Gestão do tempo

Assunção do risco

Expressão oral

Escuta ativa



conflitos

Liderança


65

1 2 3 4 5




Trabalho em equipa







conhecimento

7. Considerando as competências anteriormente referidas, quais são as que procura

desenvolver extra-curricularmente por achar imprescindíveis no mercado de trabalho. *



Tomada de decisão


Gestão do tempo

Assunção do risco

Expressão oral

Escuta ativa


Relacionamento interpessoal e gestão de conflitos

Liderança





Trabalho em equipa

66






Competências técnicas da área específica de conhecimento

Outro:

8. Da seguinte lista, que atividades fora da universidade achou importante

participar de forma a desenvolver essas competências? Pode também acrescentar

Outras


Voluntariado

Escuteiros

Desporto

Erasmus

Cursos Adicionais para desenvolver hard skills (Inglês, Excel,...)

Cursos Adicionais para desenvolver soft skills (Comunicação, Liderança,...)

Estágio de Verão

Trabalhos temporários

Summer School

Estágio Curricular

Associações de Estudantes

Organizações de Estudantes

Palestras e Seminários

Outro:

Grupo 3: Dados

9. Alguma vez trabalhou na sua área de estudo? Se sim, que tipo de trabalho foi (1º

Emprego, Estágio, Estágio de Verão,...)? E por quanto tempo? Por favor, escreva na

caixa de comentários *


Sim

67

Não

Escreva um comentário à sua escolha aqui:

10. Género *


Feminino

Masculino

Outro

11. Idade *

Neste campo apenas pode ser introduzido um inteiro.


12. Após terminar este ciclo de estudos, pretende continuar a estudar ou entrar no

mercado de trabalho? *


Continuar a estudar

Entrar no mercado de trabalho

Outro

13. Nível Escolar


Licenciatura

Mestrado

Outro:

14. Ano que frequenta atualmente *


15. Para qualquer comentário adicional, não hesite em escrevê-lo aqui


Muito obrigada pela sua participação!

Maria Costa

68

20/07/2020 – 10:46

Submeter o seu inquérito

Obrigado por ter concluído este inquérito.

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