Stakeholders perception of recruitment criteria: a Régnier’s abacus approach of market valued skills

Together with the emphasis on the technical skills acquisition, higher education institutions have been making an effort on developing and updating undergraduate transferable competences in order to diminish the gap between academic training and working world entrance. In other words, to recognize market needs, teachers and students representations about human resources requirements, and combine them to boost employability in business professions, must be a priority in today’s knowledge based economy. Taking into account the new teaching realities brought by Bologna agreement, as well as the exertion universities have been done in order to tune in enterprises and curricula, this activity intended to accede the way recruiters, alumni and college teachers from Catholic University [CU; Porto Regional Center (PRC), Economics and Management Faculty (MEF)] positioned themselves relatively to some recruitment and selection criteria for management and economics professions. Using a reflection activity based upon Régnier’s Abacus, participants were asked to positioned individually as experts (in their roles as recruiters, teachers or former CU alumni) in identifying market value skills, and afterwards to build a group debated conclusion to present to a larger audience. Results pointed out only one total consensual factor, that is, flexibility and adjustment skills as the most important factors when recruiting, followed by entrepreneur capabilities and valorization of work experiences in the candidates curricula. Discrepancies were found by group of experts when college of origin was the discussion subject, although there was consensus about the hierarchical place order in the three groups.