Which Competencies Are Really Requested at the Workplace? A Competence-Oriented Analysis in the Field of Business and Commerce

• In Event: Roundtable Session 60
  In Roundtable Session: Mathematics, Business, Commerce, and Economics Competence in Workplace Learning

Abstract

Rapid changes in social and economic life claim for new and other competencies and skills - so-called 21st Century Skills emphasizing knowledge, skills and abilities enabling self-regulated learning processes. We wanted to know whether these new competencies and skills are really requested at workplaces. Therefore, we run an analysis of job advertisements (N=707). We categorized the requested competencies and skills by the established competence-oriented O*NET (Peterson et al., 1999). Beside descriptive analyses we run t-tests, GLMs and Chi-Square tests. Results: The labor market (a) requests significantly more traditional work competencies and skills as claimed for and rated by experts as “important” 21st Century Skills and (b) these requested new and other skills differ significantly between “salespeople” and “administrative staff”.

Authors

• Susanne D.E. Weber, University of Munich

• Sandra Trost, University of Munich