Graduate employability and the development of competencies. The incomplete reform of the “Bologna Process”

Abstract

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyse the coherence between competency mismatches and the objective of European policymakers to transform the higher education system through the Bologna Process and the Dublin Descriptors, moving from the transfer of knowledge from the teacher to learning by the student and from disciplinary knowledge to competencies.Design/methodology/approach– The paper is based first on the theoretical arguments that confront the European reform of the tertiary education system and the nature of competency mismatches, and second on graduate earnings function estimates using two Italian databases. The paper demonstrates the waning signalling power associated with university degrees and the disruptive assertion of the competency concept.Findings– The theoretical arguments developed suggest that competency mismatches are not only responsible for the medium-low positioning of the competency profile with respect to a counterfactual constituted by a graduate with a good match but also tend to affect the growth path of the competencies themselves: the bigger the initial gap, the smaller the steps in their growth. The econometric estimates carried out document that the level of expressed competencies drives graduate remuneration.Originality/value– By disentangling educational outcomes (i.e. disciplinary knowledge) from requested competencies, the study demonstrates that firms remunerate competencies and to a far lesser extent disciplinary knowledgeper se, and that cultural background tends to assume greater importance than formal education in forging transversal competencies. The Bologna Process could overturn this situation, provided it is integrated with a constructivist pedagogical approach, a tool that is lacking today but is vital in providing education processes that enable students to acquire and develop the competencies required by modern production techniques.