COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT IN THE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM CONTEXT:

a survey with students and alumni of a brazilian public university

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze to what extent students and alumni of a Business Administration undergraduate program developed the competencies outlined in the course's pedagogical project and the National Curriculum Guidelines and identify the learning activities considered relevant for achieving these competencies. For this purpose, survey research was conducted with a non-probabilistic sample of 103 undergraduates and alumni from the Business Administration course at a public university. The data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. The results show that for each of the competencies outlined for Business Administration education, at least half of the survey participants believe they have developed them. Also, the results highlight the level of relevance of the learning activities experienced during the course to the development of competencies. The study’s contributions are notably practical, as identifying students' and graduates' views on the extent to which the competencies outlined for the course were developed allows academic managers to examine competency gaps. These are areas where students perceive a need for a better level of knowledge acquisition. Given that acquiring competencies occurs through experiencing learning activities, academic managers also can examine which activities are relevant to the development of competencies by students. Such information is useful both for the course curriculum revision process and for guiding the role of teachers in conducting learning activities.