Executive Summary

Laureate Competency Framework Development and Validation

On January 28, 2015 Laureate Education, Inc. and CEB-SHL (now Gartner) began a partnership
with the following goals:
• Identify the competencies sought after by employers in graduates from undergraduate
programs,
• Create a proprietary situational judgment instrument to assess those competencies,
• Adapt and improve Laureate’s curricula to create work-ready graduates,
• Differentiate Laureate institutions by delivering graduates that are better prepared for
the work environment, and
• Enable employers to recruit better employees with confidence.

Development of the Laureate Competency Framework: Goal and Activities

The goal of this part of the Laureate Professional Assessment (LPA) project was to develop and
validate a competency framework for early-career professionals that would span industries and
geographic regions. The stages of this phase of the research included the following activities:
• Reviewing CEB, internal Laureate competency frameworks, and external research on
workplace competencies to develop the initial competency library,
• Vetting the competency library thoroughly with the Laureate Professional Assessment
(LPA) Advisory Council,
• Conducting focus groups with employers, alumni, faculty, staff, and students from
across the Laureate network to review the library and offer input into its development,
• Conducting meetings on request with institutions in order to provide more local context
into the competencies and associated behaviors,
• Based on feedback from the focus groups, reviewing the next iteration of the
competency library with the Advisory Council and the Steering Committee members
(conducted individual meetings with the CEO/Chief Academic Leaders of each of the 4
Laureate network regions).
• Surveying the key stakeholders in the Laureate network - employers, alumni, faculty,
staff, and students – on the importance of the competencies and associated behaviors
to validate the competency library, and
• Using the results of the survey, finalizing the competency library from which Laureate
leadership will identify the core competencies (during a later phase of the project).

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Laureate Competency Framework/Library
The final competency library includes the following 20 competencies. Note that each of the
competencies has 4-6 associated behaviors that can be identified in the Laureate Competency
Framework document:
• Making Decisions
• Demonstrating Accountability
• Working Well with Others
• Influencing Others
• Communicating Orally
• Communicating in Writing
• Learning and Self-Development
• Analyzing and Solving Problems
• Generating Ideas and Innovating
• Planning and Organizing
• Achieving Objectives
• Meeting Customer/Stakeholder Expectations
• Cultivating a Strategic and Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Upholding Ethical Standards and Demonstrating Social Responsibility
• Applying a Global Mindset
• Adapting to Change
• Exhibiting Resilience
• Leading Others
• Managing the Work of Others
• Leveraging Technology

The Validation Study: Procedures

Validation surveys were sent to employers, faculty, staff, alumni, and students across the
Laureate network, with three key questions for validation:
1. Are the competencies important, valid, and appropriate globally?
2. What are the most critical competencies?
3. Are the competency behaviors important, valid, and appropriate globally?
Surveys were translated into 12 languages to maximize participation as well as buy-in to the
global effort. The survey links were made available between May 4 and July 6, 2015. Usable
data were obtained from over 25,000 participants, including over 5,000 employers. This
number is 43% higher than the target of approximately 17,500 responses. Nearly every
institution provided responses to the validation survey.

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The Validation Study: Results
The validation evidence supporting the competencies and the underlying behaviors is strong.
All 20 competencies were rated as at least “Important” in that they received at least a mean
importance rating of 3.0 on the 5-point rating scale for new professionals entering the
workplace. Similarly, all 97 behaviors associated with the competencies were also were rated as
at least “Important”.
A high level of consistency in ratings was found across stakeholders (e.g., employers, faculty,
and students), geographic regions, and industry groups. Laureate faculty, many of whom
currently work or previously worked outside of academia, provided very similar ratings as
employers. This suggests faculty that has a strong professional identity and understand
employability from academic and employer perspectives.
Consistency also was found across geographic regions, suggesting that the input from Laureate
subject matter experts during the competency model development was valuable in helping to
ensure that the competencies and behaviors were relevant across groups and cultures.
There is a sub-set of competencies that were consistently identified as “Very Important” and
most frequently identified as critical across stakeholders and regions. These competencies are:
• Achieving Objectives,
• Adapting to Change,
• Analyzing and Solving Problems,
• Communicating Orally,
• Learning and Self-Development,
• Making Decisions,
• Planning and Organizing, and
• Working Well with Others.
There also is a sub-set of competencies that were consistently rated lower on importance
(defined as a mean rating of less than 4.0) and less frequently identified as critical. These
competencies are:
• Applying a Global Mindset,
• Cultivating a Strategic and Entrepreneurial Mindset,
• Exhibiting Resilience,
• Influencing Others, and
• Managing the Work of Others.
While there were not substantial differences among the ratings of competencies by region, age,
gender, and stakeholder type, a few key differences were identified.
• Leadership-related competencies and behaviors, including Leading Others, Making
Decisions, Planning and Organizing, and Making Presentations) were rated as somewhat
more important and critical in LATAM than in the other regions.

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 • Art and design, architecture, communication, professional services
disciplines more frequently identified “Generating Ideas and Innovating” as critical than
other fields, including Education, Health Sciences, and Social Sciences.
• Those in Creative Industries, Professional Services, and Manufacturing, Engineering and
Technology industries rated “Generating Ideas and Innovating” as more critical than
those in Government or Healthcare.
• Younger students more frequently identified “Generating Ideas and Innovating” as
critical than older students.

Possible Research Questions (not inclusive; there may be other very important research
questions that can be addressed by the data)
• How do importance and criticality vary by institution and by country?
• How do importance and criticality vary by discipline?
• Are there differences in how key stakeholders (employers, faculty, staff, students, and
alumni) view importance and criticality of the competencies by
institution/country/discipline?
• Are there differences in ratings by key demographic variables?

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© 2016 CEB. All rights reserved.

This information may not be disclosed to any third party or used for other purposes without the express written permission of Laureate Education, Inc.