Trabajo presentado a la EU-SPRI Conference: "Science and Innovation Policy: Dynamics, Challenges, Responsibility and Practice", celebrada en Manchester (UK) del 18 al 20 de junio de 2014.Peer reviewe

Castro Martínez, Elena

Cañibano, Carolina

García Aracil, Adela

Ortega Colomer, Francisco Javier

Woolley, Richard

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EU-SPRI Conference 2014  Booklet of Abstract  56  Elena Castro-Martínez, Adela García-Aracil, Carolina Cañibano, Richard Woolley and Javier Ortega.  INGENIO (CSIC-UPV), Spain.   Competence Mismatches among PhD Graduates in Social Sciences and Humanities  Abstract: Education represents more than an investment in human capital, because it allows individuals to learn and acquire skills that will fundamentally shape their behaviour, beliefs and role in society. Education also appears to be related to people’s success in making many economic decisions. This is why more attention has been paid, in recent years, to the importance of various types of competences (kinds of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes) in the labour market (Heije et al., 2002; García-Aracil and Van der Velden, 2008).  This paper focuses on the kinds of competences that are needed by PhD graduates for successful professional development and satisfying careers. A sound theoretical framework or empirical evidence base for the choice of relevant doctoral competences is lacking. Based on different lists of general undergraduate competences proposed by the empirical evidence of other studies (e.g. Rychen and Slagnik, 2003; NCEE, 2007; Reflex Project, 2007; ILO, 2012, OECD, 2012), we examine whether doctoral competences should be differentiated from competences acquired at other educational levels, and whether employers value the competences that doctoral graduates bring to work organisations. The list of doctoral competencies then proposed in this study is based on a review of the available literature regarding graduate and doctoral students’ experiences (Buckley et al., 2009; NESTA, 2009).  The interview data used for this study was obtained under the framework of the FP7 POCARIM project (Mapping the Population, Careers, Mobilities and Impacts of Advanced Research Degree Graduates in the Social Sciences and Humanities, POCARIM 2013). This paper is focused on the analysis of the competences and social impacts of a sample of Spanish PhD holders who earned their doctoral degree during the period 2000-2012 in Social Sciences and Humanities. Participants were drawn from the five biggest public universities in Spain: Complutense University of Madrid, University of Barcelona, University of the Basque Country, University of Seville and University of Valencia. Scientific disciplines included were economics, geography, history, journalism, law, linguistics, management/business administration, political sciences and international relations.  A total of 30 social science and humanities PhD holders were interviewed. Participants were selected on the basis of including as diverse a range of employing organisations as possible. Interviews were conducted with individuals working in a private university (one), public universities (eight), foreign universities (three), private firms (four), public sector research organisations (five) and other public organisations (one). In addition, interviews were conducted with self-employed (four), unemployed (three) and retired (one) doctorate holders.  The paper provides insights into which competences are more relevant to PhD graduates’ professional success and how these competences should be generated, or may be better promoted, through higher education systems. It is far from easy to give a clear answer to these issues because of the heterogeneity and changing nature of productivity-enhancing characteristics of graduates. However, our preliminary results suggest that PhD graduates EU-SPRI Conference 2014  Booklet of Abstract  57  working outside academia do value the professional benefits deriving from the competencies they acquired during their doctoral studies - even if they were not currently working in scientific research. However, a deficit of management competences also emerged, including in relation to the ability to negotiate effectively and the capability to propose and submit research projects to competitive grant calls.  This paper has implications for policies addressing the education and training of doctoral students and their study programmes. A good doctoral programme should not only prepare PhD graduates for high level performance upon entry into the labour market, but also ensure their employability in the longer-term including beyond academic organisations.   References  Buckley, F., Brogan, J., Flynn, J., Monks, K., Hogan, T. and Alexopoulos, A. (2009). Doctoral Competencies and Graduate Research Education: Focus and Fit with the Knowledge Economy? LINK Working Paper Series, WP 01-09, DCU Business School, Ireland.  García-Aracil, A. & Van der Velden, R. (2008). Competencies for young European higher education graduates: Labor market mistmatches and their payoffs. Higher Education, 55 (2), 219-239.  Heijke, H., Meng, C. & Ramaekers, G. (2002): An Investigation into the Role of Human Capital Competences and Their Pay-Off, Research Memorandum, ROA, Maastricht.  ILO (2012). Global Employment trends for youth 2012, [http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/--- dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_180976.pdf]  NESTA (2009). The identification and measurement of innovative characteristics of young people. Development of the Youth Innovation Skills Measurement Tool. Research Report, July 2009, Kingston University.  NCEE, National Center on Education and the Economy (2007). Tough Choices, tough times. The report of the new commission on the skills of the American workforce, [http://www.skillscommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ToughChoices_EXECSUM.pdf]  OECD (2012). Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives: A Strategic Approach to Skills Policies. Paris, OECD Publishing.  POCARIM (2013). Mapping the population, careers, mobilities and impacts of advanced research degree graduates in the social sciences and humanities. European Commission, 7FP.  Reflex Project – Allen, J. and Van der Velden, R. (eds) (2007). The Flexible Professional in the Knowledge Society: General results of the REFLEX Project. http://www.fdewb.unimaas.nl/roa/reflex/  Rychen, D. S. and Slagnik, L. H. (2003). Key Competencies for a successful life and a Well-Functioning Society, Gottingen, Hogrefe and Huber.  

Competence mismatches among PhD graduates in social sciences and humanities

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