Article

What do companies think about university education?

Sandra Nieto Viramontes, senior advisor in the AQU Catalunya's Internationalisation and Knowledge Generation Department

To offer valuable insights into university education and enhance employability, AQU Catalunya has been conducting the Employers Survey every three years since 2014.

The link between academia and the job market is crucial for helping graduates secure good employment. To offer valuable insights into university education and enhance employability, AQU Catalunya has been conducting the Employers Survey every three years since 2014. This survey compiles the opinions of companies and organisations that have hired recent graduates from the Catalan Higher Education System (SUC) in order to find out how they rate their university education.

The results offer informed insights into which aspects of university education enhance employability and identify areas that could be reviewed and improved by universities.

Enhancing graduate employability should be a top priority for universities.

The results of the fourth edition of the survey were presented on 18 June. This edition focused on identifying the factors that companies consider important when hiring recent graduates. It also addressed the challenges they face, the skills they believe need to be strengthened in graduate training, and the overall training needs of qualified staff.

The main findings of the study were as follows:

The most highly valued aspect when hiring is practical training, whether through work experience or internships. Businesses also value training experiences in which the company plays an active role, such as completing a final dissertation (TFE) in partnership with a company or holding a dual university degree.
Although they were evaluating the hiring of recent graduates, companies also emphasised the importance of complementary short- and long-term training, as they recognise the importance of specialisation in specific areas and professional development.
In terms of the requirements for landing a contract, a high level of English is particularly important in certain areas, especially ICT.
Half of the organisations participating in the survey acknowledge that they have had difficulties in recruiting qualified staff. These difficulties are particularly prevalent in fields such as medicine, social work, engineering and education. The reasons are varied: a lack of graduates, a deficit in soft skills and room for improvement in the working conditions offered by some sectors.
In terms of the skills of recent graduates, there are gaps in areas such as problem solving, practical training, planning and organisation. Despite these shortcomings, companies are very satisfied with the recent graduates they have hired.
Finally, one of the most common needs identified by companies is the need for ongoing training for their qualified staff. Currently, these training needs are mainly aimed at improving soft skills, with the organisations themselves taking on this task.

Based on these results, we believe it would the SUC should consider the feasibility of the following measures:

1) Increase student contact with the labour market:

Incorporate external internships into degree programmes and encourage participation.
Design pathways that allow students to combine work and study.
Look into offering degrees with dual qualifications (and reserve places for this option).
Encourage students to do their final dissertation in partnership with a company (especially for those who have completed an internship).
Incorporate and increase project-based and case study learning methods.

2) Reinforce the role of universities in lifelong learning, primarily through short courses (micro-credential strategy).

3) Offer subjects taught in English within degree programmes and promote international stays, particularly in fields where English proficiency is essential for the job market.

Without doubt, enhancing graduate employability should be a top priority for universities, which must take a leading role in delivering training that aligns more closely with labour market demands.