Abstract
Objectives: The current objectives include the development of a global competency model applicable across a wide range of jobs, industries, and geographies for university graduates entering the workplace. Method: The competency model was developed utilizing a global panel of subject matter experts and a validation survey of over 25,000 students, faculty, staff, and employers across more than 30 countries. Results: The results showed substantial consistency for the importance and criticality ratings of the competencies, with Achieving Objectives, Analyzing and Solving Problems, Adapting to Change, Communicating Orally, Learning and Self-Development, Making Decisions, Planning and Organizing, and Working Well with Others as the highest-rated competencies across regions, roles, and industries. Conclusions: The most important competencies for students entering the workforce were consistent across different jobs, different industries, and different countries. The diversity and varied experience levels of the sample provide greater generalizability than most competency modeling projects that are often idiosyncratic to specific roles, industries, subjects, or levels. Implication for Theory and/or Practice: University faculty and staff can use the results of the validation study to develop curricula and programs that will be better able to foster important competencies to ensure that their students are better prepared to enter the workplace. Although some organizations emphasize leadership as important for all professional employees, Managing the Work of Others, Leading Others, and Influencing Others were consistently rated lower in importance by employers across all roles and regions and may not be appropriate as the primary focus of skill development for new graduates.
Highlights
Academic programs have received a rapidly increasing call to incorporate skills that have been referred to as soft skills and, most recently, 21st-century skills. Merisotis and Hauser (2020) noted that significant changes to higher education as a result of COVID-19 provide an opportunity to refocus the way we think about the goals of higher education: “While we’re spending billions to save higher education, college and university leaders should focus on engaging today’s students
The specific objectives of this project were to (1) develop a behavioral competency framework/library, involving the input of multiple stakeholders including global employers, that would serve as the basis for other competency-based education initiatives; (2) define the competencies required by graduating students to be successful in the global workplace, enhance their employability, and lead to sustained professional success; and (3) ensure applicability of the model across all campuses, geographic regions, and fields of study. This competency model was developed by Laureate Education, Inc., a global network of institutions of higher education; at the time of development, Laureate was operating in 25 countries that included over one million students worldwide
Breadth of programs, and institutions across the globe, Laureate Education was extremely well positioned to undertake the development of a global competency model framework based on input from employers, faculty, staff, students, and alumni that would address the needs of its global student body and the employers with whom they will work after graduation
Summary
Academic programs have received a rapidly increasing call to incorporate skills that have been referred to as soft skills and, most recently, 21st-century skills. Merisotis and Hauser (2020) noted that significant changes to higher education as a result of COVID-19 provide an opportunity to refocus the way we think about the goals of higher education: “While we’re spending billions to save higher education, college and university leaders should focus on engaging today’s students. Merisotis and Hauser (2020) noted that significant changes to higher education as a result of COVID-19 provide an opportunity to refocus the way we think about the goals of higher education: “While we’re spending billions to save higher education, college and university leaders should focus on engaging today’s students. They will have to focus more clearly on building people’s skills for work and civic life [italics by the current authors], including coming up with better approaches for them to demonstrate what they know and can do” In an examination of employer expectations, Karzunina et al (2018) found that, for all but one of the 15 employability skills identified, employers reported a distinct difference between the importance of the skill and new hire preparation in that skill and that this difference was noted generally across regions and countries
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