Satisfaction with acquired transferable competences among university students in Cambodia

Abstract

Improving the quality of higher education is one of the priority areas worldwide. Transferable competences acquired during studies play a key role in student employment in the labor market. This study aims to compare, through transversal research, the eight transferable competences required by the labor market across occupational sectors, with the degree of satisfaction with their acquisition by university students in agricultural fields of study in Cambodia. This aim makes it possible, in particular, to identify the educational gap in university preparation for the profession. The data were collected from 439 respondents using a self-evaluation questionnaire. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to test the significant difference of each transferable competence associated with respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics (gender, field of study, and year of study). The results showed that the highest levels of student satisfaction with sense of responsibility and teamwork and least recognized working with digital technologies and communicating in foreign languages as competences. Additionally, the degree of satisfaction with transferable competences increases among students of later years. This is the first study of transferable competences in Cambodia, allowing a clearer view of education in an Asian environment. Implementing transferable competences in curricula will increase graduates’ employability and strengthen the country’s economic growth.