Generic skills and competences for graduate profilesa comparative analysis of scores and underlying dimensions among stakeholders and regions

Resumen

Generic skills and competences are considered as important outcomes of Higher Education. However, course and curricula design deserve differentiated treatment across countries. It is therefore vital for higher education institutions to equip graduates with generic skills and enable them to function effectively in the world of work and in life generally. This thesis sketches the importance of generic skills and competences as part of human resource formation and tries to identify key skills and competences proposed by stakeholders from different regions. Student centred learning and learner autonomy is high on the agenda on higher education reformation. The concept of graduate employability has also become important for national economies and for an economically and knowledge-driven economy, skilful individuals are considered as productive and rewarding. A common issue for these initiatives is the importance given to key generic skills and competences. In spite of controversies on the matter of generic or transferable skills, there is a tacit consensus that they have to be introduced in the curricula. Several studies and projects have attempted to develop key skills and competences and Tuning project is one of the most important ones among such projects. As generic skills and competences have become crucial factor in higher education, this thesis would like to identify key skills and competences by using the data collected by the Tuning project. In this thesis, human capital theories are used to support the relevance of skills and competences. Key skills and competences are selected from the Tuning list of general competences and underlying structures and ranking of competences are proven statistically using factor analysis and mean scores comparisons. With empirical examination, an effort is made to identify thinking styles of stakeholders from different regions and understand structural dimensions, thus to propose graduate profiles showing preferences for competences. Analysing differences of opinion by respondents from different regions and subject areas would enable us to understand the present day relevance for demanded skills and competences. Once trends and dimensions are identified, proposals could be made for the contextualisation of generic skills within realistic practical activities of higher education formation and training. Presenting such evidences, this thesis intends to shed lights on how higher education institutions could (re)structure teaching and learning process understanding relevant skills and competences.