Graduates' emotional competency: aligning academic programs, firms' requirements and students' profiles

This study explores the still under-investigated phenomenon of the development of behavioral competencies in higher education settings. We carried out a study on a sample of graduate students enrolled in different disciplinary academic programs in a public University located in northern Italy. We analyzed their emotional, social and cognitive competencies (by adopting a research method that includes a multi-rater approach), comparing them with those expected by a sample of recruiting companies and with those developed by the teachers. Moreover, this study provides preliminary evidence on the impact of a set of characteristics related to the academic learning environment (such as the teaching methods) on the studentsÕ competency profile, correlating these variables with single competencies and clusters.