Self-assessment of competences and their impact on the perceived chances for a successful university-to-work transition: the example of tourism degree students in Poland

Competences are the most important career capital a university graduate can have. The objective of the paper is to determine which competences acquired at tourism degree programmes affect students’ self-assessment regarding their own competitive advantage on the labour market. The data was collected during a nationwide diagnostic survey (N = 476) carried out at ten Polish universities among students finishing their tourism degree courses. Principal component analysis allowed us to identify a set of competences that have a significant impact on the students’ perception of their chances of finding employment in the tourism industry. These are: ability to cope with challenges and stress; writing and speaking skills in a foreign language; public speaking; planning and implementation of subject-specific projects; ability to conduct subject-specific research and perseverance. The higher the assessment of each of the above, the more confident of their competitive advantage on the labour market the students were.
Highlights Self-assessment of competences credibly corresponds to the students' perception of their career potentialCompetences are the fundamental career capital of recent university graduatesPCA helps identify a set of competences that determine self-perception of one’s competitive advantage on the labour marketSeven competences determine how students of tourism degree courses assess their chances on the Polish labour marketThe topic of tourism degree graduates’ competences in relation to their situation on the labour market is still an under-researched area