Abstract:

The objective of the research was to evaluate the generic competences of students in higher education in the online modality of the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) in the business area. The main previous literature of the study considered the contributions of Medina, Amado and Brito (2010), Farías and Firinguetti (2012), Duran and Estay (2012) as well as the Tuning Project (2007). The relevance of the research was to determine the proficiency levels of the generic competences of the students of the business area because it is the first time that an assessment is made in this institution of higher education in Mexico.

The type of study that was used was a quantitative methodology with a transversal design with exploratory-descriptive scope. The instrument that was designed to obtain the information was a questionnaire based on a Likert scale organized by the dimensions: Instrumental, interpersonal and systemic competences developed in the degree. The items were measured through a scale with five response options ranging from 0 (not developed) to 4 (highly developed). The instrument was subjected to an expert judgment to determine the validity of its content and then obtain its reliability and internal consistency by means of Cronbach's alpha coefficient, which was 0.846, so it was interpreted as adequate.

The sample of the study was of a stratified type made up of 343 participants who studied undergraduate degrees in Public Accountant (19%), Commercial Relations (20%), International Business (30%), International Trade (27%) and Business Administration and Development (4%) where the distribution with respect to gender was 76% for women and the remaining 24% for men. To organize the information, descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The interpretation of the levels of development was carried out according to the following evaluation criteria: From 0.00 to 1.00 a non-developed level of competence was considered; from 1.10 to 2.00 as an insufficient level of development; from 2.10 to 3.00 as a moderate development level and from 3.10 to 4.00 as a consolidated level of development. The main results were that the student body has a level of proficiency from insufficient to moderate for the generic skills of instrumental, interpersonal and systemic type. In addition, significant statistical differences were found by gender (t = 3.115, p = 0.00); age (ANOVA, F = 6.115, p < 0.05); work experience (ANOVA, F = 7.237, p < 0.05) and academic level (ANOVA, F = 5.468, p < 0.05).

Keywords:

Self-evaluation, generic competences, student body, proficiency level.