Employers’ skill preferences across Europe: between cognitive and non-cognitive skills

Kureková, Lucia Mýtna; Beblavý, Miroslav; Haita, Corina; Thum, Anna‐Elisabeth

doi:10.1080/13639080.2015.1024641

Cited by 40 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…This method can be easily implemented in audit and correspondence studies too, to analyze hiring decisions in real employment contexts (Jackson 2009;Lahey and Beasley 2009), as well as in large-scale survey experiments (Mutz 2011; Humburg and Van der Velden 2015). Alternatively, in-depth interviews (Rivera 2011(Rivera , 2012 or content analysis of job advertisements (Mýtna Kureková et al 2015) can provide useful insight into employers' preferences. We can only welcome future studies that target employers in other countries or economic sectors, as the theories on the relationship between education and labor-market outcomes are in need of further refinement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Does Education Matter to Employers in Different Institutional Contexts? A Vignette Study in England and the Netherlands

Stasio¹,

Werfhorst²

2016

Social Forces

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W e study the process by which employers evaluate and interpret information related to the educational background of job applicants in simulated hiring contexts. We focus on England and the Netherlands, countries with very different education systems and labor-market institutions. Using a vignette study, a quasiexperimental technique, we asked employers to rate a series of résumés of hypothetical job applicants that randomly varied on a number of characteristics, including level of education, field of study, grades, study delays, and internships. Our findings suggest that the informational value of these characteristics varies across the two countries: English employers primarily sort applicants based on relative signals of merit such as grades, in line with queuing theory; Dutch employers instead base their ratings on fields of study and occupation-specific degrees, as predicted by human capital and closure theories. The findings from the vignette study are in line with results obtained from a survey administered to the same employers, corroborating the research validity. This study brings the employers' perspective into a field that has mainly tested theoretical arguments about employers' hiring behavior using employee data. From a theoretical point of view, our approach nuances three well-known theories on the relationship between education and job assignment (human capital, queuing, and closure theories), by specifying the scope conditions under which they are more likely to hold. We show that the reason why education matters to employers and the way employers evaluate educational credentials during the hiring process are conditional on institutions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Does Education Matter to Employers in Different Institutional Contexts? A Vignette Study in England and the Netherlands

Stasio¹,

Werfhorst²

2016

Social Forces

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“…Research shows that especially in the interactive service economy non-cognitive skills are more highly Levelling the playing field valued by employers than cognitive skills. However, non-cognitive skills are an additional requirement to cognitive skills, not a substitution (Mýtna Kureková et al, 2016). The options to measure both skill groups during the hiring process differ.…”

Section: Job Competition and Substitutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Levelling the playing field? Active labour market policies, educational attainment and unemployment

Benda

Koster

Veen

2019

IJSSP

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how active labour market policy (ALMP) training programmes and hiring subsidies increase or decrease differences in the unemployment risk between lesser and higher educated people during an economic downturn. A focus is put on potential job competition dynamics and cumulative (dis)advantages of the lesser and higher educated. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses multi-level data. The fifth wave (2010) of the European Social Survey was used and combined with macro-level data on labour market policies of the OECD. The sample consisted of 18,172 observations in 19 countries. Findings The results show that higher levels of participation and spending on training policies are related to a smaller difference in the unemployment risks of the educational groups. Higher training policy intensity is associated with a lower unemployment risk for the lesser educated and a higher unemployment risk for the higher educated. This implies that the lesser educated are better able to withstand downward pressure from the higher educated, thereby, reducing downward displacement during an economic downturn. Hiring subsidies do not seem to be associated with the impact of education on unemployment. Originality/value The paper adds to the discussion on ALMP training and hiring subsidies that are primarily rooted in the human capital theory and signalling theory. Both theories ignore the social context of labour market behaviour. The job competition theory and cumulative (dis)advantage theory add to these theories by focussing on the relative position of individuals and the characteristics that accompany the social position of the individual.

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“…The growing literature about skills is characterized by a lack of a clear definition or taxonomy of skills (Beblavý et al, 2016), and international skill strategies are constantly revised (e.g., Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Skills Strategy, OECD, 2019a). There are various examples of skills classification and frameworks, among them are such taxonomies as hard versus soft skills, cognitive versus non-cognitive skills, and portable versus unportable skills (Cukier et al, 2015;Kautz et al, 2014;Kureková et al, 2016;Laker & Powell, 2011;OECD, 2012). In this article, we have used the common hard versus soft skills division (Laker & Powell, 2011;OECD, 2016;Toner, 2011) and have divided the examined skills into two main groups: technical knowledge and skills (hard skills) and organizational, managerial, social, and personal skills (or soft skills).…”

Section: Identifying and Assessing Engineering Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the Skill Gap in Robotics: Global and National Environment

Shmatko

Volkova

2020

SAGE Open

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This article focuses on the demand for skills of highly qualified scientific and technical professionals (engineers and researchers) in robotics, on both a global and national level. Information is collected using the text-mining of open-access vacancies for understanding the global trends and in-depth interviews with experts for a more detailed study of national trends. The study explores the combination of hard and soft skills, as well as interdisciplinary skills. Soft skill requirements play an important role in the demanded skill set of the specialist, but the claims for hard skills (including digital) are not becoming less strict. Programming and the knowledge of specialized software packages are the most important skills, but must be combined with practical skills (assembly, welding, soldering). The broad range of application areas for robotic systems creates demand for new multidisciplinary skills (knowledge of artificial intelligence, new materials, and biology). Rapid technological development underlines the growing importance of soft skills, such as communication skills, self-motivation, and a willingness to learn. Lists of the most demanded skills in different countries principally coincide. Results can be applied for developing policies aimed at eliminating the skill gap in prospective technological areas.

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Employers’ skill preferences across Europe: between cognitive and non-cognitive skills

Cited by 40 publications

References 32 publications

Why Does Education Matter to Employers in Different Institutional Contexts? A Vignette Study in England and the Netherlands

Why Does Education Matter to Employers in Different Institutional Contexts? A Vignette Study in England and the Netherlands

Levelling the playing field? Active labour market policies, educational attainment and unemployment

Bridging the Skill Gap in Robotics: Global and National Environment

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