Competence Development and Employability Expectations: A Gender Perspective of Mobility Programmes in Higher Education

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of study-abroad programmes in higher education by examining how students’ participation can foster competence development and employability expectations. Our research focuses on the acquisition of competences through the international mobility programme Erasmus+ of 191 students of an undergraduate programme in tourism, considering the di erent perceptions of male and female students. Our results confirm that five out of the six competences which students develop through Erasmus+ mobility have a positive and significant influence on their employability expectations. Our findings also confirm that male and female students have di erent perceptions concerning the influence on their employability expectations of those competences acquired during their experience studying abroad.

This research work has been developed under the framework of the Research Project CEI2018-13 funded by the Consejería de Economía, Industria, Comercio y Conocimiento of the Government of the Canary Islands, and the Research Project ULPGC2018-01 funded by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.