Nowadays, higher education students more often cross borders to study, and/or work abroad. Especially in the South of Europe, economical crisis has had an important impact on graduate students professional future development. For instance, Spanish actual unemployment has increased, and 26,7% of the population is unemployed (Eurostat, 2013). Due to this fact, graduate students look for a new hope and future jobs in other European countries. However, how well prepared are university students to study or work abroad? This question raises the topic related to what competencies undergraduate students need to achieve to accomplish a successful stay or work abroad.

Previous research has shown that students who went abroad developed intercultural competencies and managed more effectively intercultural situations than others (Van der Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2000, 2001, 2013), learned language skills and had better culture adaptation (Behrnd & Porzelt, 2012; Carmona, Van der Zee, & Van Oudenhoven, 2013). However, fewer studies (e.g., Doyle, Gendall, Meyer, Hoek, Tait, McKenzie, & Loorparg, 2010) have examined the relationship between undergraduate students’ competencies and the positive attitude and intention to work abroad. Actually, there are many graduate students that have left their own countries to search for a job opportunity in other European countries. However, students need preparation and training in specific competencies (curricular and transversal, personal and intercultural) to cope situations in the new cultural context.

According to the European Commission (2006), key competencies for lifelong learning are a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the context, and necessary for personal fulfilment and development, social inclusion, active citizenship and employment. Based on the European policy framework, from the eight key competencies, three are relevant for the present study: communication in foreign languages, social and civic competencies, and sense of initiative and entrepreneurship.

In line with Ward´s model (2001) adaptation to other cultures may be meaningfully divided into two domains: 1) Psychological domain (emotional/affective) and 2) Sociocultural (behavioral) domain related to the ability to “fit in'' to acquire culturally appropriate skills and to negotiate interactive aspects of the host environment. Based on previous research, the three former competencies  are key factors to adapt to a new culture.

Therefore, communication in foreign languages competence helps students to get intercultural understanding. Social competence refers to intercultural competence and all forms of behaviour that equip individuals to participate in an effective and constructive way in social and working life. Thus, according to Multicultural Personality Model (Van Oudenhoven & Van der Zee, 2000, 2001, 2013), there are five relevant intercultural competencies that ease adaptation in a new culture: cultural empathy, open-mindedness, emotional Stability, social initiative, and flexibility. And the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship competence is the ability to turn ideas into action. It involves creativity, innovation and risk-taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives.

Therefore, the present research examines the relationship between last year undergraduate students’ competencies and their attitudes and intention to work abroad.

Carmona, C., Van der Zee, K., & Van Oudenhoven, J. P. (2013). Competencias interculturales: aspecto clave para la internacionalización. En J. Gacel-Avila and N. Orellana (Coords.), Educación superior: gestión, innovación e internacionalización (pp. 195-214). Valencia: Publicacions de la Universitat de Valencia. Doyle, S., Gendall, P., Meyer, L.H., Hoek,J., Tait,C., McKenzie, L. & Loorparg, A. (2010). An Investigation of Factors Associated with Student Participation in Study Abroad. Journal of Studies in International Education, 14 (5), 471-90. Van der Zee, K. I., & Van Oudenhoven, J. P. (2000). The multicultural personality : A multidimensional instrument of multicultural effectiveness. European Journal of Personality, 14, 291–309. Van der Zee, K. I., & Van Oudenhoven, J. P. (2001). The multicultural personality questionnaire: Reliability and validity of self- and other ratings of multicultural effectiveness. Journal of Research in Personality, 35, 278–288. Van der Zee , K., Van Oudenhoven, J.P., Ponterotto, J. G., & Fietzer , A. W. (2013). Multicultural Personality Questionnaire: Development of a Short Form, Journal of Personality Assessment, 95(1), 118-124. Ward, C., & Kennedy, A. (2001). Coping with cross-cultural transition. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32(5), 636-642.