Integrating emotional and social competency development in the academic curricula: The case of Ca’ Foscari Competency Centre

Emotional and social competencies (ESCs) are considered increasingly important for graduates’ employability. Although there is general agreement that higher educational institutions should more adequately prepare students promoting ESCs in their curricula, recent studies still revealed a mismatch between the expectations of companies and students. Despite the insights provided by the academic experiences that aim to develop graduates’ ESCs, they show some limitations. First, the courses are focused only on specific competencies, especially the social ones. Second, they do not engage and motivate students to practice ESCs over time pursuing a lasting change in their behaviors. Finally, they are attended only by business students since they are primarily included in MBA curricula. Drawing on those studies that adopt the whole person learning approach and the intentional change theory to competency development, the purpose of the paper is to develop a methodological approach to design and implement graduate-level educational program intended to develop students’ ESCs portfolio that can be included in all academic curricula. In doing so, we illustrated the case of an educational project designed by the Ca’ Foscari Competency Centre, an academic centre located in northeast Italy, for all graduate students enrolled in master degrees in different disciplinary fields. The project aims to increase the students’ awareness on ESCs and provides them the methodology for developing their competency portfolio for attaining their future objectives. The paper advances the literature on management education and competency development in two ways. First, we systematize the extant literature on competency development specifically in the context of higher education, identifying the recent advancements and major limits. Second, our research provides empirical insights on how universities, adopting a systematic and holistic approach to competency development, can respond to the challenge to prepare students with the necessary skills to increase their employability and meet labour market expectations.