AQU issues its report on employers' opinions of ICT graduates
Following its analysis of employers' opinions regarding the training and work preparedness of graduates in Information and Telecommunications Technologies, within the framework of the Employers perceptions of graduate skills and training project, AQU Catalunya has issued its report on Employers' opinions of the education and training of ICT graduates.
The main conclusions of the survey study, which have been presented to the deans of faculties at institutions in Catalonia that deliver programmes in these subjects, are as follows:
- First/bachelors degrees in ICT account for 40% of the total number of enrolments in Engineering Sciences. The number of places available is largely a function of demand. It is worthy of note that 8 out of 10 ICT first degree students are male.
- The level of student satisfaction with first/bachelors degrees is high and, in many cases, higher than the average for degrees at Catalan universities.
- The employment outcomes of ICT graduates are also very good, with job stability and high salaries being two important aspects.
- 8 out of every 10 organisations stated they have had difficulties in recruiting the right staff (this sector has the most difficulties in this respect). The most important reasons for this were candidates' lack of requisite skills for the job and the shortage in the number of ICT graduates.
- Employers as a whole are satisfied (7.1 out of 10) with ICT graduate skills. Attention was drawn however to the need to improve graduate skills in problem solving and decision-making, as well as practical skills, as is the case with other degree programmes in Catalan universities.
- In relation to specific ICT skills, 67% of employers as a whole identified the need to improve training in project planning and management. Around 30% also called for need for improvements to training in cybersecurity, adaptability and data analysis and evaluation and critical testing, skills that are more related to solution implementation. On the other hand, employers as a whole were satisfied with other graduate skills related to solution design.
- Employers as a whole underlined the importance of professionals having skills in programming, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and project management.
Bearing in mind these findings, and with the participation of representatives from the faculties in Catalan universities that deliver first/bachelors degrees in ICT, a series of enhancement proposals have been drawn up for these degree programmes in order to:
- Increase the demand for admission to ICT first/bachelors degrees: by promoting the technological vocation of students in their studies prior to university, especially among girls; by displaying occupations and jobs in ICT; by enhancing collaboration with the mass media; and by carefully defining the usefulness of ICT degrees, together with the knowledge of how to transmit this to society.
- Improve cross-disciplinary and soft skills: by promoting dual programmes; by ensuring that all first degrees include an appropriate volume of compulsory work experience/placement; by encouraging the writing up of the final-year project during external work experience; and by upgrading graduate skills in project management through involvement in projects, final-year projects, inter-disciplinary involvement, etc.