Purpose – the purpose of the study is to evaluate the opinion of employers on the importance of employability competencies in recruitment in Latvia, considering increasingly global and changing labour market. Research methodology – total of 750 companies participated in this research. A list of 17 skills, competencies and attitudes, important for individual employability in changing labour markets, was rated using a four-point Likert scale. Findings – the research results show that employers value attitudes, emotional and self-management competencies the most when hiring potential employees, which are followed by social competencies. Although academic skills were assessed as the least important in the list of all competencies, the majority of employers consider academic skills important in the recruitment process. Research limitations – as this research is not sector-specific, it is limited only to those competencies that can be equally applicable to all occupations. Practical implications – research provides valuable, easily acquirable information for various stakeholders in the area of human resource planning and development, including educational institutions which aim to update programmes to facilitate graduate employability. Originality/Value – research offers three complex factors explaining the elements of individual employability, based on empirical analysis

The focus of this research is to evaluate the importance of developing different employability competencies in vocational education. The Importance – Performance Analysis (IPA) was used to measure the priority areas in developing employability of graduates in vocational education institutions in Latvia from the employers’ perspective. Total 700 companies participated in this research. A list of 17 employability competencies was rated using a five-point Likert scale. Employers rated the relative importance of employability competencies in the labour market, followed by another rating of performance of vocational education institutions in developing these competencies. The purpose of the research is not only to measure the actual satisfaction and performance level, but also to highlight important areas for improvement. The IPA is a clear and powerful tool for policy makers and managers to find out attributes that are doing well and the attributes that need to be improved and require immediate action. The results are useful in identifying priority areas for curriculum development of vocational education to facilitate employability of graduates. Keywords: employability competencies, importance-performance analysis, employer evaluations, vocational education.

Emotional intelligence can play an important role in an individual's education and career success. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the opinion of employers on the importance of competencies related to emotional intelligence in the recruitment process in Latvia, as well as the extent to which these competencies can be developed in vocational education and training. Total of 750 companies participated in this research, rating the importance of competencies and the performance of vocational education institutions using a four-point Likert scale. The list of methods currently applied in vocational education developing emotional intelligence competencies was developed through in-depth interviews with the managers of vocational education institutions. The research results show that most of employers evaluate ability to work independently, work motivation and problem-solving skills as very important in the recruitment process. Vocational education institutions need to pay more attention to improving ability to take responsibility in students. The main methods used by vocational education institutions to develop competencies linked to emotional intelligence are extra-curriculum activities, international events and mobility, as well as work-placements, which are supplements to education programmes rather than core curriculum, indicating to low link between emotional intelligence competencies and expected learning outcomes of vocational education. The research provides the basis for reconsidering the vocational education curriculum in the light of its contribution to development of competencies that are highly valued in the labour market.

-Introduction of work-based learning (WBL) in Latvia has required new approaches in decision making of different stakeholders. Experience from countries with longstanding WBL tradition has shown the numerous advantages but also the challenges this approach presents. One of these challenges is the need for new forms and mechanisms of cooperation among the key stakeholders -policy makers, public administrators, employers, educators and social partners. The current paper analyses the results of scientific research in this field, as well as uses the empirical results of two surveys performed by the authors: a survey of public sector experts and a survey of employers in Latvia. In order to obtain detailed results, the evaluations of respondents on multiple aspects analysed in the surveys were evaluation in the scale 1-10. The data of both surveys have been analysed by descriptive analysis, crosstabulations and multivariate analysis -factor analysis. The results have indicated that the views of employers and social partners on the most of the key aspects of introduction and implementation of WBL are similar. However, a more profound analysis has to be performed in order to develop proposals or the most efficient approach to WBL.