Competencies, occupational status, and earnings among European university graduates

Abstract

While the effect of education and experience on labour market outcomes has been widely studied, the literature that analyses the influence of human capital competencies (talents, skills, and capabilities) is still relatively scarce. Using cross-sectional data from the REFLEX Project, we investigate the effect of personal competencies (both cognitive and non-cognitive) on two labour market outcomes among European university graduates: occupational status and earnings. Our estimates suggest that individuals endowed with a higher level of competencies are more likely to occupy managerial and professional positions and, to a lesser extent, technician jobs. Additionally, they also receive higher wages, but the relation is only significant for men. When we distinguish competencies according to their cognitive or non-cognitive nature, we find that only the latter are significant in explaining occupational status. In contrast, cognitive competencies are more related with wages. As regards the role of specific competencies, our findings suggest that leadership is the most relevant competence for the occupational status of males, especially in managerial positions. In contrast, initiative and enterprise abilities seem to be the most relevant skills for women in such positions. Intelligence produces the highest rewards in terms of earnings among the male subsample, while none of the competencies exerts a significant impact on females' wages.

A Conceptual Framework Toward Understanding of Knowledge Acquisition Sources and Student Well-Being

“…Employability is composed of knowledge, technology, and diversity (Hennemann and Liefner, 2010;Baek and Cho, 2018). In the context of higher education, students may not have the knowledge and ability to absorb knowledge (Blázquez et al, 2018) even if the information provided by teachers is enriched. The market-oriented culture department emphasizes that students obtain relevant information from competitors and employers from the external employment market and respond to the information through the integration process.…”

“…From the point of view of external knowledge, Szulanski (1996) argues that individuals' external knowledge is affected by the environment in which they live (Shahzad et al, 2020). Accordingly, external knowledge will differ in its meaning and value when used in different environments and thus enhance one's understanding, digestion, and replication of the knowledge (Blázquez et al, 2018;Abbas and Saǧsan, 2019). In other words, students with sufficient AC will be able to communicate and share knowledge about the connotation of knowledge through mutual interest and language, and then acquire valuable knowledge (Diener et al, 1999;Cadiz et al, 2009;Abbas and Saǧsan, 2019).…”

“…However, few studies have explored the knowledge-processing of students from the "input-process-output" stance of knowledge management with regards to the future entry of students into the workplace (Baek and Cho, 2018). The ability to utilize and apply internalized knowledge is to cultivate a student's employability (Blázquez et al, 2018). Some scholars argue that "employability" is an individual's need to continuously acquire or create jobs through appropriate use of competence, to accomplish tasks and adapt to changes in the internal and external labor market (Fugate et al, 2004;Cuyper et al, 2008;Vermeulen et al, 2018;Shahzad et al, 2020).…”

Added value of post-secondary education in Estonia

“…The human capital literature indicates the positive returns of education for the labour market experience (Blázquez et al, 2018), although a number of factors other than education also play a role in individuals' earnings. Graduates' earnings are a measure of the added value of education (Cunha & Miller, 2014) or one of the numerous variables to develop a methodology for assessing the quality of education from post-secondary education institutions (Milla et al, 2016).…”

“…Education is seen in the human capital literature as one of the determining factors for labour market outcomes (Blázquez et al, 2018). In order to analyse and predict the post-secondary education (PSE) graduates' success in the labour market a combination of data sources has been used, including self-reported data, tax data and educational data.…”