Training emotional competence for a successful school-to-work transition: An experimental study

Emotion seemingly play a crucial role during events of meaningful importance for individuals such as the school-to-work or job transitions. The role of emotion in vocational behaviour is gradually grasping researcher’s interest and, the ability to perceive and manage emotions – namely emotional competence – is increasingly considered as crucial for career success (Coetzee & Harry, 2014; Di Fabio, 2012; Di Fabio & Kenny, 2014; Emmerling & Cherniss, 2003). In this experimental study, we propose to test the effectiveness of a structured training in emotional competence in improving last-year university students’ professional development outcomes, that is, career adaptability (Savickas, 2005), career decision self-efficacy, and positive and negative affect. Sixty-three undergraduate students were recruited and randomly assigned to either an experimental (31) or control group (33). The EC training consist of 3-hr sessions per week during 5 weeks. This interval between sessions gave the participants enough time to apply their learning in their daily life. Each session was designed to enhance a specific emotional competence: understanding emotions, identifying emotions, expressing emotions, regulating emotions and utilizing emotions (Mikolajczak, Quoidbach, Kotsou, & Nelis, 2009). The results show that, compared to the control group, the training group displays a significant improvement of emotional competence directly after the training. However, we did not find higher levels of career adaptability and career decision-making self-efficacy after the training. The results are discussed in light of the current progress of the research project. Despite some non significant results, our research contributes to new ideas for intervention in the field of academic and professional counseling.