Más posibilidades de encontrar empleo: el caso de Reino Unido
Ayer publicábamos un post en el que se hacía referencia a la reciente publicación del estudio, « Barómetro de empleabilidad y empleo de los universitarios en España, 2015«, del Observatorio de Empleabilidad y Empleo Universitarios (OEEU). La empleabilidad es una de las cuestiones que más preocupa a la comunidad universitaria. En este blog se han sostenido muy diversas posturas sobre este tema (ver aquí) y, en esta ocasión, queremos aportar una perspectiva internacional.
The Edge Foundation, una organización que promueve prácticas profesionales durante la educación superior, encargó al SCRE Center at the University of Glasgow que investigaran qué valoran los empleadores en un candidato al puesto de trabajo. Los universitarios quieren aumentar las posibilidades para encontrar trabajo y, según la investigación, la experiencia real fuera de la universidad juega un papel importante en la empleabilidad.
Los resultados apoyan un modelo de educación qué contempla el aprendizaje en la vida real.
In 2010, 73% of the students who took part in the Sodexo University Lifestyle Survey said they went to university to improve their job opportunities. In the Edge Foundation´s view, the best way to increase employability is to enter the labor market with practical experience. The research was conducted on The Edge Foundation´s behalf by the SCRE Center at the University of Glasgow and consisted first of a set of 22 interviews with employers and members of relevant educational organizations and secondly of 9 employer case studies which varied both in industry and location throughout the UK. The main objectives of the research were: to explore what skills, knowledge, or characteristics employers and Higher Education Institution staff consider important for employability, to determine variations in these perceptions in different sectors size, and to assess whether these perceptions influince HEI strategies to support practical learning opportunities and to evaluate the effectiveness of differences in strategies.
«Some graduates and their employers say more could be done to develop students’ wider skills and attributes, including team-working, communication, leadership, critical thinking and problem solving. These are known collectively as employability skills” wrote Lord Baker of Dorking.
Employers were found to value practical experiences such as internships and apprenticeships because these allowed them to asume that candidates had valuable workplace skills and traits such as professionalism, awareness skills, and the ability to network.
HEI representatives believe that, where present, their graduate award programmes contribute to enhancing students’ ability to secure employment and perform well in their jobs. These programmes are seen as valuable because they not only facilitate students’ access to work-based learning and similar opportunities but also allow these experiences to be documented. This is then a source of evidence of skills and attributes that can be presented to employers. At this point, research surrounding the importance of vocational and practical experience remains anecdotal.
While more research needs to be done to fully understand the role of real life experience in employability, the Edge Foundation stresses the need for HEI´s to coordinate pracitcal experience opportunities for students such as securing funding for internships and integrating fieldwork into courses. The report stresses that experiental learning opportunities should be planned rather than ad hoc.
Developing graduate employability skills and attributes should be included in HEIs’ strategic and faculty/departmental level planning. Universities need to reflect the promotion of employability skills and attributes in their mission statements, learning and teaching strategies, course frameworks, strategic documents and practical guidance.
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*Referencia elaborada por Hannah Taylor y Miguel Ángel Sancho para universídad.