employability

This research presents a hypotheticalmodel regarding university students’ perceptions of their current preparation for entering the workforce that uses a structural regression model to connect various aspects regarding training, satisfaction, information, and career guidance programs. Its research objectives are to establish the goodness of fit of the model, analyse the relationships established among the variables, and compare the effect of career guidance on these variables. To this end, a representative sample of 931 final year undergraduate students from the Universidad de Murcia and the Universidad de Granada from a range of degrees and branches of knowledge participated anonymously and voluntarily by completing an ad hoc questionnaire (named COIL). The AMOS v21 program was used to analyse the data and estimate the relationships established among the different variables of the model. Elevated model fit indexes stand out among the main results obtained, corroborating its design using the empirical data, as well as statistically significant causal relations in all cases analysed. In addition, introducing participation in professional guidance programs as a grouping variable strengthens these causal relationships. These results emphasize the role of career guidance as a key connection between higher education and employment at a time of change and transition to the workforce for university students where difficulties are not measured by the benefits achieved but rather by the permanent configuration of the changing and ambiguous social context in which they must make this transition.

 

 

Cite this article as: Martínez Clares, P. and González Lorente, C. (2018). Orientación, empleabilidad e inserción laboral en la universidad a través de un Modelo de Ecuaciones Estructurales | Career guidance, employability, and entering the workforce at University through a structural equation model. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 76 (269), 119-139. doi: https://doi.org/10.22550/REP76-1-2018-06

At present, competence-based approaches are gradually becoming the main axis of the European Union’s general education policies and of pedagogical practice at several educational levels. Nonetheless, it is important to analyse how the various general prescriptive directions that can easily be identified at the normative level are being put into practice in order to establish an in-depth understanding of them. This study presents the results of a research project with the aim of analysing and describing successful practices in the development of Cross-curricular Competences (CCC) in VET centres in the Basque Country. The methodology used is case studies in which a quantitative approach (a questionnaire for teachers) is used, followed by a qualitative approach comprising interviews and focus groups with management teams, students, and teachers. Analysis of the results reveals three typical cases relating to the forms and modes of institutionalization of CCCs: at the level of individual teachers where the development of CCCs is in the hands of teachers in an isolated and diffused way; at the cycle level where the teachers of a cycle as a group direct the process within a context of methodological change; and at the centre level where the development of CCC becomes an institutional feature involving all of the centre’s teachers. Each of these cases results in a particular understanding of the concept of CCCs as well as diverse ways of materializing them in teaching-learning processes. The results provide key information that enables critical reflection on the shift from individual experiences to more collaborative institutional and teaching models for developing CCCs in vocational training.

 

 

Cite this article as: Eizagirre Sagardia, A., Altuna Urdin, J., & Fernández Fernández, I. (2017). Prácticas de éxito en el desarrollo de competencias transversales en centros de Formación Profesional del País Vasco | Successful practices in developing cross-curricular competences in vocational training centres in the Basque Country. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 75 (267), 293-308.  doi: https://doi.org/10.22550/REP75-2-2017-7

The current market demands a high level of employability and the successful completion of demanding selection processes.In this article, we are going to present the results of an investigation whose goals were to analyze the own knowledge of the finalists students of the University of Vigo about of the contituent components/ stages in the process for work placement, and assessing the knowledge/ participation degree and evaluation of the own usefulness about the programs and services in this institution for promoting the employability. A questionnaire were distributed among 365 students in the final year in the different University of Vigo degrees. The results suggest medium knowledge about facilitator components for entering the productive world and lower about own programs and services of University of Vigo and making reconsidered the strategies were used.

Universities throughout their history have been subjected to intensive debates on their role and function in society. This article shows how under processes of modernization and globalization the emphasis has shifted from the question whether universities should produce intellectuals, researchers or professionally trained academics to meet labour market demands, to the question what kind of competencies the university should teach to students in order to meet the Lisbon objectives.

On the basis of the current discourse on competencies and the value attached to the various kinds of competencies on the labour market, the notion of academic competence will be developed as an overarching educational concept. Three major competency areas for curriculum design are distinguished, namely specific, generic and reflexive competencies. It is argued that these competencies in their connection can reconcile the different functions of the university.