Abstract
The basis for this longitudinal study was to find the predictors of transferable skills acquisition and portability among university sophomore students. The method employed was the path analysis using as variables: (1) the theoretical framework of transferable skills representations (Evers and Rush in Manag Learn 27(4):275–300, 1996; Evers et al. in The bases of competence: Skills for lifelong learning and employability. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1998) in the freshman and sophomore years (2) the developmental dimensions of Career adaptability and Vocational development (Savickas in Contemporary models in vocational psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, 2001, in Career choice and development. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2002, in Career development and counseling: putting theory and research to work. Wiley, Hoboken, 2005, in Life-design International Research Group: Career Adaptability Project Meeting, 2009), and, (3) the grades for Project I and Project II (curricular units specially developed for the acquisition of groups of transferable skills in the first and second years of Economics and Management program at the Catholic University of Porto [herein referred to as Catholic University of Porto]. The criteria used were the grades from two second-year curricular units (Business Law and Statistics). The objective was to observe the impact of other dimensions on actual skills acquisition, considering the influence of the former on the grades of Business Law and Statistics as an indicator of portability of the transferable skills acquisition. All participants were male and female students at the Catholic University of Porto, Faculty of Economics and Management, between 18 and 25 years of age (M = 18.53, SD = 1.37) at the first assessment (N = 193). Results suggest that Project I grades are the best predictor of both Business Law and Statistics grades. However, results also reveal that student’s representations of their transferable skills measured at the first and the second year are mediated by Career adaptability measured at the second year. Results are discussed based on the aforementioned frameworks.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173.
Bennet, N., Dunne, E., & Carré, C. (1999). Patterns of core and generic skill provision in higher education. Higher Education, 37, 71–93. doi:10.1023/A:1003451727126.
Cabral-Cardoso, C., Estevão, C. V., & Silva, P. (2006). As competências transversais dos diplomados do ensino superior: Perspectiva dos empregadores e dos diplomados. Braga: Universidade do Minho/TecMinho.
Campos, B. P., & Coimbra, J. L. (1991). Consulta Psicológica e exploração do investimento vocacional. Cadernos de Consulta Psicológica, 7, 11–19.
Carnevale, A. P., Gainer, L. J., & Meltzer, A. S. (1990). Workplace basics: The essential skills employers want. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Chickering, A. W., & Reisser, L. (1993). Education and identity (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Coimbra, J. L., & Fontes, M. (2005). Empreendedorismo e gestão de carreira. Revista Formar, 51, 3–8. http://www.iefp.pt/iefp/publicacoes/Formar/Documents/Formar%202005/FORMAR_51.pdf.
Dacre Pool, L., & Sewell, P. (2007). The key to employability: Developing a practical model of graduate employability. Education & Training, 49, 277–289. doi:10.1108/00400910710754435.
Dix, J., & Savickas, M. L. (1995). Establishing a career: Developmental tasks and coping responses. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 47, 93–107. doi:10.1006/jvbe.1995.1031.
Evers, F. T., & Rush, J. C. (1996). The bases of competence: Skill development during the transition from university to work. Management Learning, 27(4), 275–300.
Evers, F. T., Rush, J. C., & Berdrow, I. (1998). The bases of competence: Skills for lifelong learning and employability. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2009). Multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Hillage, J., & Pollard, E. (1998). Employability: Developing a framework for policy analysis. Research Brief 85, Department for Education and Employment, London.
Lindsey, J. K. (2000). Dropouts in longitudinal studies: Definitions and models. Journal of Biopharmaceutical Statistics, 10, 503–525. doi:10.1081/BIP-100101981.
Lopez, F. G. (2009). Adult attachment security: The relational scaffolding of positive psychology. In S. J. Lopez & C. R. Snyder (Eds.), Oxford handbook of positive psychology (2nd ed., pp. 405–415). New York: Oxford University Press.
OECD (April, 2010). Learning, working, networking: Quality teaching initiatives at the Portuguese Catholic University. In OECD IMHE program on “Quality of teaching in higher education”. http://www2.porto.ucp.pt/QualityTeaching/relatorio.pdf.
Oliveira, E. D., & Guimarães, I. C. (2010). Employability through curriculum innovation and skills development: A Portuguese case study. Higher Education Management and Policy, 22(2), 1–20. doi:10.1787/17269822.
Rocha, M. (2012). Transferable skills representations in a Portuguese college sample: Gender, age, adaptability and vocational development. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 27(1), 77–90. doi:10.1007/s10212-011-0067-4.
Rocha, M., Azevedo, J., & Oliveira, E. D. (2008). Adaptação do Skills Questionnaire a uma amostra universitária portuguesa. Tradução, adaptação e dados psicométricos. Non-published Manuscript. Porto: Universidade Católica do Porto.
Rocha, M., Oliveira, E. D., & Guimarães, I. (January, 2010). Stakeholders perception of recruitment criteria: A Régnier’s abacus approach of market valued skills. FEG-UCP Série Documentos de trabalho em Gestão, Faculdade de Economia e Gestão, Universidade Católica Portuguesa: Pólo da Foz, Porto: Portugal. http://ideas.repec.org/p/cap/mpaper/012010.html.
Savickas, M. L. (2001). Toward a comprehensive theory of career development: Dispositions, concerns, and narratives. In F. T. L. Leong & A. Barak (Eds.), Contemporary models in vocational psychology (pp. 295–320). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Savickas, M. L. (2002). Career Construction: A developmental theory of vocational behavior. In D. Brown (Ed.), Career choice and development (4th ed., pp. 149–205). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Savickas, M. L. (2003). Advancing the career counseling profession: Objectives and strategies for the next decade. The Career Development Quarterly, 52, 87–96. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2003.tb00631.x.
Savickas, M. L. (2005). The theory and practice of career construction. In R. W. Lent & S. D. Brown (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp. 42–70). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Savickas, M. L. (July, 2009). Life-design International Research Group: Career Adaptability Project Meeting, Meeting Report. Non-published manuscript. Berlin: Humboldt Universität.
Savickas, L. M., Nota, L., Rossier, J., Dauwalder, J.-P., Duarte, E., Van Esbroeck, R., et al. (2009). Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75, 239–250. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004.
Savickas, M., & Walsh, W. B. (1996). Handbook of career counseling theory and practice. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black Publishing.
Schermelleh-Engel, K., Moosbrugger, H., & Müller, H. (2003). Evaluating the fit of structural equation models: Test of significance and descriptive goodness-of-fit measures. Methods of Psychological Research - Online, 8(2), 23–74. http://www.cob.unt.edu/slides/Paswan/BUSI6280/Y-Muller_Erfurt_2003.pdf.
Snowman, J., McCown, R., & Biehler, R. F. (2012). Psychology applied to teaching (13th ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth.
Swanson, J. L., & Fouad, N. A. (1999). Applying theories of person-environment fit to the transition from school to work. Career Development Quarterly, 47, 337–347. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.1999.tb00742.x.
Washer, P. (2007). Revisiting key skills: A practical framework for Higher Education. Quality in Higher Education, 13, 57–67. doi:10.1080/13538320701272755.
Yorke, M. (2004). Employability in the undergraduate curriculum: Some student perspectives. European Journal of Education, 39, 409–427. doi:10.1111/j.1465-3435.2004.00194.x.
Acknowledgements
This work was performed under the support of a post-doctoral research grant financed by FCT, under the QREN’s Operational Program Human Potential 2007–2013 and by the MCTES (SFRH/BPD/47876/2008).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rocha, M. Predictors of the acquisition and portability of transferable skills: a longitudinal Portuguese case study on education. High Educ 69, 607–624 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-014-9793-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-014-9793-2