Abstract:

Generic competencies are regarded as knowledge, skills and attitudes a person can apply in various fields or contexts regardless of discipline, and are considered essential for managing one’s everyday life as well as increasing one’s employability (Cox & King, 2006, Future Work Skills 2020, 2011, Tomlinson & Holmes, 2017).

In higher education (HE) generic competencies have become as important as the subject knowledge and, in many countries, there are national education policies stating the relationship between education and work and the importance of enhancing of students’ generic competencies (Jääskelä, Nykänen & Tynjälä, 2018).

Although generic competencies have received widespread attention from both policymakers and academics, there is still lack of understanding regarding how students perceive and acquire these competencies, or how to enhance their development in HE curricula (Chan et al., 2017, Virtanen & Tynjälä 2018).

In the current study, authors’ objective was to identify the perceptions of both the students and academic staff, and current practices regarding the development of generic competencies in the teaching of business management (BM) at the EUAS.

Research questions:
- What are the current teaching and assessment practices of generic competencies in Business management curriculum at EUAS?
- What are the students’ perceptions and experiences regarding the development of generic competencies in BM curriculum?
- What are the academic staff perceptions and expectations regarding the development of generic competencies?

Methods:
The basis for research was derived from challenges in the development and implementation of generic competencies in the HE curriculum as identified by Chan et al. (2017). Generic competencies framework of Õunapuu and Einpaul (2016) was used to conduct interviews, surveys and curriculum analysis.
The semi-structured interviews were conducted in June 2018 with 26 teachers out of 35 in the EUAS personnel management curriculum. In September 2018 a survey involving 19 last year personnel management students (out of 34) was conducted. The additional data was collected through curriculum analysis.

Results:
The results of the study indicate that great attention is paid at EUAS to support the development of generic competences in teaching. Students have improved their level of a wide range of generic competencies, in many of them rather substantially. Students develop their generic competencies more in general and core subjects of the curriculum than in specialty subjects. Students expect to be able to develop most of the generic competencies throughout the whole curriculum, i.e., including in specialty subjects.
Interviews with teachers showed that different subject involves generic competences teaching, but not many teachers have systematically taught about it. In many cases, teachers fostered the development of generic competencies without assessing them. The interviewees also made suggestions for the development of generic competencies in the EUAS curriculum.
The results of the curriculum analysis revealed a lack of cohesion for generic competencies in course descriptions. Based on the analysis of the study outcomes, the authors presented suggestions for improvements in the teaching process.

Keywords:

Generic Competencies, Employability.