Spanish Universities and their Involvement with the Employability of Graduates

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale for measuring the
commitment of Spanish universities to the employability of their
graduates by looking at four different dimensions of the term: basic,
business protocol, matching and feedback. These dimensions have
been measured against initiatives that are run beyond the scope of
official academic training. Based on this scale and applying the analysis
of several clusters, we identify three profiles for university centers
according to their commitment to the employability of their graduates.
We gave a questionnaire to 230 higher education institutions in Spain.
The results demonstrated that Spanish universities have a long way to
go to reach sufficient commitment in the four areas proposed. Only one
third of the centers analyzed met the criteria. Last, we propose some
potential measures for improvement such as requiring a minimum level
of a foreign language in order to complete a degree, the use of
interactive learning methodologies and collaboration with employers.