Students' Perception of HR Competencies

Background and purpose: Human resource professionalism receives considerable attention in terms of the competence of individual. In this article, we want to bridge the existing competencies of students and the perceived competencies that they assume will be developed and obtained during their studies. The purpose of our paper is a) to present competencies in general, b) to determine the meaning of the development of competencies in the field of higher education, and c) to present the role of competencies in human resource management. The aim of this paper is to examine the human resource competencies among students, and their judgments regarding the competencies they have already received during their studies. Methodology: The questionnaire was distributed to full-time students of the Faculty of Organizational Science, University of Maribor, in such a way that both genders, both undergraduate and graduate studies, and all years of study were represented. We have measured students' opinions concerning their current and future perceptions about professional competencies in the HR field. Results: Based on the self-assessment of fifteen HR competencies, we used hierarchical clustering performed with Ward's method and standardized variables and got two clusters. A t-test was used according to low or high levels of students' current competencies. The positive association between satisfaction with study programme and student's opinion on development of competencies during their studies was confirmed with one-tailed Pearson correlation coefficient. Conclusion: The majority of students believe that they possess significant HR competencies. They have expressed a need for further education and training in that field. The students have assessed that the study programme allows them to acquire and develop the competencies for a successful task performance of the HR professional.