POSTGRADUATE COMPETENCIES: THE GRADUATES' POINT OF VIEW

Abstract

This study aims to analyze what constitutes competency for those graduating from a Master's degree in business administration and who work as teachers based on their experience of the ppga [Business Administration Postgraduate Program] at the Universidade Federal de Uberlandia, in Brazil. There was a further attempt to identify the activities of the program implicit in the constituted competencies. The case study was adopted as a research strategy and the program documents and graduates working as teachers were used for the data. This data was collected through surveys, electronic interviews, focus groups and in-depth interviews, with document analysis and thematic content analysis subsequently employed. The results indicated the graduates formed competencies in seven areas: trans-competencies and meta-competencies, intellectual, technical, functional, behavioral, ethical, political and identity. Thus, it was possible to observe not only the feasibility of the ppga´s educational goals, but also of those asserted by the guidelines of the Brazilian postgraduate system. However, it was found that the ppga contributes to the formation of graduates that relate more to of the mastering of skills and technical and scientific knowledge, and less to ethical, political, identity and relational competencies, on which there is a focus on preparation for research in detriment to preparation for the learning process.