Individual competences acquired during the undergraduate years of students of a Business Administration program

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the opinions of students about the competences acquired in programs of Business Administration at a private university in São Paulo. A case study was carried out using a questionnaire – with closed and opened questions – to collect data and semi-structured interviews. The sample includes 441 students enrolled in the last semester. The factorial analysis allowed the identification of four factors corresponding to the following groups of competences: social, problem-solving, technical-professional, and communication ones. The frequency of the answers indicate that the competences which have highly agreement value concentrate on factor 1 (social competence) and factor 2 (problem-solving competence). The qualitative data analysis allowed a better comprehension of the aspects involved in the identified competences. By summarizing the found results it is possible to conclude that, besides the development of an entrepreneur attitude, the program fundamentally provided the development of the social competence.