Resumo

SILVA LAYA, Marisol. Competencies of Ibero-American students upon finishing upper secondary education. Perfiles educativos [online]. 2016, vol.38, n.152, pp.88-108. ISSN 0185-2698.

This article emerges from an exploratory study conducted in six countries (Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Spain) regarding competencies developed by youth in upper secondary schooling. Surveys were applied to 1,441 students, 512 of their teachers and 1,101 higher education professors in order to explore their perceptions of development of 20 generic competencies among students in their final year of upper secondary schooling. The results portray an alarming panorama regarding the contributions of secondary schooling to the development of generic competencies, which are vital for the performance of young people both at school, as well as in other spheres of their lives. Deficiencies are perceived in the domain of cognitive and linguistic competencies. This represents a challenge for those who design and implement educational policy since schools should have a proactive role in this field that cannot easily be replaced by another space or alternative of informal education.

Palavras-chave : Generic competencies; Secondary education; High school; Quality education; Employability.