Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/114462 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
KOF Working Papers No. 389
Publisher: 
ETH Zurich, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, Zurich
Abstract: 
This paper sheds light on the questions how important competences are and which competences can best be learned at school and which competences can be acquired better in the workplace. Exploiting data from a survey among professional tertiary education and training business administration students and their employers in Switzerland, we find that competences related to strategic management, human resource management, organizational design and project management processes are most suitable to be taught in school. However, the results further suggest that soft skills can be acquired more effectively in the workplace than at school. The only exceptions are analytical thinking, joy of learning and organizational competences, for which school and workplace are similarly suitable. Thereby, the paper provides empirical evidence regarding the optimal choice of the learning place for both human resource managers as well as educational decision makers who aim to combine education and training, e.g. in an apprenticeship.
Subjects: 
Competences
soft skills
school
workplace learning
relevance
learning place
JEL: 
A23
I21
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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