Employers’ opinion
The purpose of the study on employers’ opinions is to find out about the employability of graduates in Catalonia. Based on a survey, the study gathers information on companies’ and organisations’ perceptions of the training received by recent graduates and analyses this together with the data from the surveys on the satisfaction and employment outcomes of graduates. The studies are ultimately used to make proposals on how to improve degree programmes, which are drawn up during the different seminars held, where the stakeholders involved discuss the results.
Results
What is the “Employers” study?
The “Employers” study analyses university employability – understood as the capacity of universities to design a training profile that responds to the skills and qualifications required in the labour market – giving prominence to the opinion of the companies, institutions and organisations that hire recent graduates.
The opinion of the employer community is collected by means of a survey adapted to 17 educational fields, after which it is analysed together with the data from the satisfaction and employment outcomes surveys to provide a set of results that, from an across-the-board perspective, helps the university community to make proposals to improve degree programmes from the perspective of employability. These proposals for improvement are generated by experts and stakeholders who take part in workshops and seminars to present the results.
Third edition of the survey (2021-2023)
The third edition of the Employer study analyses data on the employability of university graduates through a survey conducted in collaboration with Idescat, along with data from the survey of the employer community conducted by AQU Catalunya and adapted to 17 specific educational fields.
The collaboration with Idescat came about in 2021, when we collaborated on the design of the “Recruitment of staff: university and business” module in the Section on the Current Entrepreneurial Situation of the Business Climate Survey (CLEM). In this module, companies located in Catalonia were asked about the difficulties they encountered when recruiting recent graduates and which cross-disciplinary or soft skills acquired during their university education had the most room for improvement. A summary of the survey results can be found here.
Fieldwork for the third edition of the general employer opinion survey was carried out between May and July 2021. In addition, between May and July 2022, data collection was carried out for the Primary Eduction, Secondary Education, Nursing and Medicine sectors. In total, 3042 responses were collected. The survey is structured in the following blocks:
- Hiring difficulties
- Satisfaction with the skills of recent graduates and/or students on work placements
- Skills to be improved by recent graduates and/or students on work placements
- Outlook
The survey has been adapted to 17 educational fields, with a list of skills specific to each one being developed, in order to obtain more precise information on the particularities of different degree programmes, as well as the specific needs of companies and organisations that recruit graduates from different educational backgrounds. In addition, a list of soft skills is included for the rest of the degree programmes.
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In 2021, in order to encourage participation in the survey, companies and organisations that responded to the questionnaire were entered in a draw to win a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop. Check the rules of the draw.
In 2022, for the same purpose, health centres also participated in a draw for a MacBook Air laptop. Check the rules of the draw.
Surveys
See the methodology used during the project fieldwork.
Consult the source and use of the contact details of the AQU Catalunya employer survey:
Project phases
The phases defined for this third edition of the survey (2021-2023) are as follows:
Collaborators
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