Can intervention in emotional competences increase employability prospects of unemployed adults?

• We examine the effects of emotional competences intervention on unemployed adults.
• Perceived employability significantly increased after the intervention.
• Entrepreneurial self-efficacy increased after the intervention.
• The intervention had a positive effect on actual reemployment success.
• No change was found in job search or entrepreneurial intention after the intervention.

The purpose of the present study is to explore the effects of a structured intervention in emotional competences (EC) on employability prospects of unemployed adults. More precisely, the objective is to analyse whether enhancing EC (such as identifying and expressing emotions, understanding emotions, and regulating one's own and others' emotions) can improve perception of employability, job search, entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial self-efficacy and improve reemployment success among unemployed participants. Seventy three participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental (40) or control group (33), and the experimental group underwent a 15 h intervention focused on improving EC and developing effective emotion regulation strategies. Both groups completed all the measures before the intervention (T1), one month later (T2), and six months after the intervention (T3). The results showed that the participants in the experimental group significantly increased their level of perceived employability, overall entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and three dimensions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy after the intervention, unlike their control group counterparts. Moreover, the experimental group showed more reemployment success and less reemployment delay than the control group. No changes were detected in job search or entrepreneurial intention in either group after the intervention. In addition, the positive effects of the intervention were not maintained six months after the intervention. The results suggest that structured interventions in EC can increase people's beliefs in their own capabilities (entrepreneurial self-efficacy) and their ability to find employment (employability) and can contribute to the actual reemployment.